solcott - Slashdot User

Mt. Gox Gone? Apparent Theft Shakes Bitcoin World 695

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @09:46AM from the repercussions-will-repurcate dept.

mendax was one of many readers to write with news about the apparent shutdown of Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, in the wake of massive theft. "The New York Times is reporting that Mt. Gox, the most prominent Bitcoin exchange, 'appeared to be on the verge of collapse late Monday, raising questions about the future of a volatile marketplace.' 'On Monday night, a number of leading Bitcoin companies jointly announced that Mt. Gox, the largest exchange for most of Bitcoin's existence, was planning to file for bankruptcy after months of technological problems and what appeared to have been a major theft. A document circulating widely in the Bitcoin world said the company had lost 744,000 Bitcoins in a theft that had gone unnoticed for years. That would be about 6 percent of the 12.4 million Bitcoins in circulation.' Maybe the U.S. Dollar isn't so bad after all." Forbes goes further, and says flatly that Mt. Gox has shut down; Wired calls it an implosion. Reader electron gunner links to the alleged leaked document which outlines the exchange's crisis strategy. Watch this story for updates, since there are bound to be new developments.

Heavy Rain Previews Show Promise 84

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday December 17, 2009 @03:39AM from the blue-skies dept.

As the February release date for Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain nears, several publications have gotten a chance for some hands-on time with the game and seem to be intrigued by what they saw. Quoting the Opposable Thumbs blog: "The game grabs you during the quiet moments where nothing 'happens.' When you look at a picture your child drew. When you're questioning someone about a crime. When you're trying to figure out how to react to a violent situation. The preview we were sent put me in different situations as I played a small handful of characters, and each one provided a few tiny moments that were surprising in terms of storytelling or subtlety." Eurogamer's previewer had a similar reaction: "To my great delight as well — Heavy Rain isn't a mature game because it has unhappy families and moody lighting, it's a mature game because it anticipates an adult response from the player and is prepared to receive it."

Murdoch To Explore Blocking Google Searches 549

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday November 09, 2009 @07:08PM from the why-is-no-one-calling-for-his-head dept.

In another move sure to continue the certain doom looming over classic publications, Rupert Murdoch has elaborated on the direction he would take in an effort to monetize the content that his websites deliver by attempting to block much of Google's ability to scan and index his news sites. "Murdoch believes that search engines cannot legally use headlines and paragraphs of news stories as search results. 'There's a doctrine called "fair use," which we believe to be challenged in the courts and would bar it altogether,' Mr Murdoch told the TV channel. 'But we'll take that slowly.'"

Happy Birthday, Internet! 213

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 02, 2009 @07:59PM from the not-a-kid-anymore dept.

NobodyExpects writes "I'd like to wish a happy birthday to the Internet! Today marks its 40th birthday! In fall 1969, computers sending data between two California universities set the stage for the Internet, which became a household word in the 1990s. On September 2nd 1969, in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, two computers passed test data through a 15-foot gray cable. Stanford Research Institute joined the fledgling ARPANET network a month later; UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah joined by years end, and the internet was born."

The Best and Worst Tech-Book Publishers? 271

Posted by timothy on Saturday August 15, 2009 @11:05PM from the little-pots-of-red-ink dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I am an author working on a technical book about an open-source software package. I am looking for a publisher, and I would like to hear experiences from any Slashdot authors. Who are the best publishers to work with and why are they great? Who are the worst publishers in the tech book business, and what nightmare/horror stories can you tell us about them? Any publishing company in particular you recommend avoiding? Any gems of advice (rights reversion, etc.) you can provide for first-time tech book authors?"

Comment Re:Bye Bye Monopoly (Score 3, Insightful) 295

by solcott on Friday August 07, 2009 @11:04AM (#28986227) Attached to: Underground App Store Courts the Jailbroken

The problem is that you need jailbroken iphone, which wont be so easy for average joe. There wont be final resolution before Apple also learns that restricting so much is a bad decision.

Out of curiosity, have you even jailbroken an iPhone?

I'm going to say that for an average Joe, jailbreaking an iPhone is *not* a problem assuming said average Joe both knows how to read and owns a computer with internet access.

Maybe the "below-average" Joes who have an iPhone, but either do not know how to read or do not have a computer with internet access would have a problem figuring out how to jailbreak, but the truly average ones, they won't have any trouble at all.

Comment Re:rolleyes (Score 1) 288

by solcott on Wednesday June 24, 2009 @09:09AM (#28451429) Attached to: Has Google Broken JavaScript Spam Munging?

OP here (I guess I forgot to log in before) Actually, when I posted I was fully aware of the difference between cue and queue, but as referenced in #28442905 I was in fact referring to expecting a line of obfuscation != security posts to form, because /.ers really have some great arguments against it and I was hoping to get to read a lot of them.

Comment Re:"Bugs" fixed (Score 1, Insightful) 50

by solcott on Saturday May 23, 2009 @06:40AM (#28065291) Attached to: <em>Metroid Prime</em> Trilogy Being Updated For the Wii, Due In August

The games will most probably have all of the great tricks fixed that made Prime such an amazing game. Dash jumping, triple bomb jump, rapid fire missiles, and so on. It was great to take the game engine to its limits without technically cheating. Not only that, Prime1/2 had an amazing control scheme, 3 just used the wii remote as a gimmick IMO. For info check. http://www.metroid2002.com/home.php

Assuming that the US release of the "New Play Control" Metroid Prime is going to be mostly the same as the Japanese release that has been out for a while (and is easily playable in English by people with homebrew enabled Wii's) all of those things are still there.

I agree that the controls on the GC versions of Metroid were great, but they were the only first person perspective games on a console I could stand to play, and that was probably only *because* they were Metroid games.

The infrared aiming done by the Wiimote in MP3 is a lot more "keyboard and mouse" like, and once I got my hands on the Japanese remake of Metroid Prime and patched it to English I've only been able to even touch my GameCube Metroid discs once, and that was to see what it was like playing them with a controller instead of a Wiimote

What is was like was using a web browser without adblocking/mouse gestures/tabs once you have gotten used to having them. You just aren't able to go back to a clunky stiff and slow product once you have used a better version of it.

Comment Re:ummm... patches? (Score 0, Offtopic) 75

by solcott on Thursday May 21, 2009 @09:10AM (#28038291) Attached to: <em>Terminator Salvation</em> Game Launched, PC Version Recalled

I just discovered this game tonight, and it will REALLY surprise me if it comes back without being polished up - because yes... the game is boring. Your main mission is to save a couple of guys. Thats it. No big bosses, simple battles the whole way.

Is it just me, or does it seem confusing how it could be possible for the first post, with ACTUAL CONTENT in it and not just "I'm first fags!" could be modded Redundant?

I mean seriously, it's the first post, what posts came before it that it is repeating to be called redundant?

Nintendo Penalizing Homebrew Users? 95

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday April 25, 2009 @03:17AM from the thanks-so-much dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Bricked your Wii? Not only will Nintendo charge you for the repair, they will now add an additional fee if they detect any homebrew software. 'Should Nintendo have to pay to repair hacked Wiis under warranty? Maybe not, but they have no (moral) right to gouge customers out of spite for having the HBC installed. This actually poses a technical dilemma for us with BootMii. As currently designed, BootMii looks for an SD card when you boot your Wii, and if it finds the card and the right file, it will execute that file. Otherwise, there's no way to tell it's installed.'"

Dreamweaver Is Dying; Long Live Drupal! 318

Posted by timothy on Friday March 06, 2009 @07:18PM from the view-askew dept.

Barence writes "Here's an interesting blog post by a designer who reckons Dreamweaver is dying. It's not Dreamweaver's fault, though. Nor is the problem Adobe and its development team — the last Dreamweaver CS4 version was the most impressive release in years. Moreover, although Microsoft Expression Web poses a far more credible threat than FrontPage could muster, Dreamweaver remains the best HTML/CSS page-based editor available. The real problem for Dreamweaver and for its users is that the nature of the web is changing dramatically."

Is It Windows 7, Or KDE 4? 559

Posted by timothy on Friday February 06, 2009 @09:20AM from the spy-vs.-spy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Is it Windows 7 or KDE 4? In this video, ZDNet takes to Sydney's streets to find out what people think of what they think is a Windows 7 demonstration. The results are surprising." Or maybe they're not surprising at all.

EA Unveils Two New Battlefield Games 54

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 06, 2009 @06:43AM from the now-with-more-battles-and-extra-fields dept.

Electronic Arts announced at New York Comic Con that the Battlefield series would be getting two more titles. Battlefield 1943 will be focused on multiplayer, and it's due out for download this summer. It will be available through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, and there will be a PC version as well. A website has been launched for the game, and it contains a trailer. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is scheduled for winter, and it will be available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 also. Details for Bad Company 2 are sparse, though one exec said, "... it takes everything that players liked in the original and ups the ante — more vehicles, more destruction and more team play."

Left 4 Dead DLC, SDK Announced 66

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 06, 2009 @01:15AM from the we-supply-the-tools-you-supply-the-braaaaains dept.

Today Valve announced plans for Left 4 Dead's first DLC, called The L4D Survival Pack. It will include a new game mode and two campaigns for Versus mode. The new content is coming to both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game (a PS3 port to the base game still seems unlikely). The press release goes on to say, "In addition, for PC gamers and aspiring developers, the first Left 4 Dead release for the Source Software Development Kit (Source SDK) will allow the creation of custom Left 4 Dead campaigns that will be discoverable via L4D's matchmaking system. The SDK update is also due for release this spring, and is free of charge to all owners of L4D on the PC." The Opposable Thumbs blog also reports on a way to play Left 4 Dead in 3D.

First-Person Shooter Modified For Fire Drill Simulation 158

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday February 05, 2009 @07:52AM from the crap-where's-a-medkit dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers at Durham University have modified a video game and turned it into a fire drill simulator using the Source engine (the 3D game engine used to drive Half-Life 2), and created a virtual model of one of the university's departments. Dr. Shamus Smith said that although 3D modeling software was available, modifying a video game was faster, more cost effective, and had better special effects. 'We were interested in using game technology over a customized application and the Source Engine, from Half-Life, is very versatile,' said Smith. 'We used the simulation to see how people behaved in an actual fire situation and to train people in "good practice" in a fire.' The team says the virtual environment helped familiarize people with evacuation routines and could also help identify problems with a building's layout. One problem, however, was that while the simulation worked for most people, those who played a lot of video games did some unusual things when using the simulation. 'If a door was on fire, [the gamers] would try and run through it, rather than look for a different exit,' said Smith." This makes me wonder to what extent entertainment software will fill the role of non-entertainment software as the tools and engines become more and more powerful. Ars mentions related news that the US Dept. of Naval Research is dumping millions of dollars into "virtual reality-like simulations of small-scale urban conflicts." It's unclear whether this is related to the US Army's similar program.

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