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Submission + - What is the best bug-as-a-feature?

Submitted by Bat Country
Bat Country writes: The workflow system at the department I develop for was hand-coded by my predecessor in a rather short amount of time, resulting in somewhat unreadable code with a number of interesting "features."

When I took over maintenance of the code base, I started patching bugs and cleaning up the code in preparation for a new set of features.

When I was done however, I got a pile of complaints about features which disappeared which turned out to be caused by the bugs in the code.
So that leads me to ask, what is your favorite bug that you either can't live without or makes your life easier?
Science

Scientists Find 'Altruistic' Center of the Brain 223

Posted by Zonk from the be-nice-brainy dept.
davidwr writes "A team of researchers at Duke University published a paper linking the brain's posterior superior temporal cortex to altruistic behavior. The BBC also picked up the story. If confirmed this has applications in neurology, psychology, child-rearing, and a host of other domains. From the BBC piece: 'Using brain scans, the US investigators found this region related to a person's real-life unselfish behaviour. The Duke University Medical Center study on 45 volunteers is published in Nature Neuroscience. The participants were asked to disclose how often they engaged in different helping behaviours, such as doing charity work, and were also asked to play a computer game designed to measure altruism.'"

Easy Throw-Away Email Addresses 297

Posted by kdawson from the bug-me-not dept.
netbuzz writes, "A fellow teaching himself Seam has come up with a clever Web app called 10 Minute Mail. It gives you a valid e-mail address — instantly — for use in registering at Web sites. Ten minutes later (more if you ask), it's gone. You can read mail and reply to it from the page where you create the throw-away address. Limited utility, yes, but easy and free."

Windows CE 6 Arrives Complete with Kernel Source 169

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has launched the sixth edition of their embedded OS Windows CE and this time has included the full source. From the article: 'Developers can now access shared source code for the Windows CE kernel -- as well as certain device drivers and application-level components -- directly from within the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 distribution package. To do this, they click on a function in the IDE that installs the shared source, and indicate their acceptance of the associated shared source license.'"

The NSA Knows Who You've Called 1136

Posted by Zonk from the at-least-i-know-i'm-free dept.
Magnifico writes "USAToday is reporting on the National Security Agency's goal to create a database of every call ever made inside the USA. Aided by the cooperation of US telecom corporations, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of tens of millions of Americans; the vast majority of whom aren't suspected of any crime. Only Qwest refused to give the NSA information because they were uneasy about giving information to the government without the proper warrants. The usefulness of the NSA's domestic phone call database as a counterterrorism tool is unclear."

Finding High Quality Videos from E3? 55

Posted by Cliff from the your-bleeding-edge-game-fix dept.
Alec T asks: "Seeing how E3 is fast approaching, I was wondering where Slashdot readers go for their E3 fix? Gamespot, IGN and 1UP all provide free low quality streams and downloads, however we are reduced to having to pay to access high quality trailers and press conference screenings. Why is this? Is there a site out there which caters to our high definition needs? If bandwidth is such a concern, maybe BitTorrent would be the best distribution method, particularly for the console press conferences?"

Boot Camp For Suckers? 610

Posted by Zonk from the bet-it-works-too dept.
DigitalDame2 writes "PC Magazine's Editor-in-Chief says the whole Mac/Windows dual-boot thing is really nothing to get excited about. He writes that Boot Camp is really just a plan to get Windows users to convert to OS X." From the article: "Once you've laid out a few kilobucks on your BC system and been frustrated a few times with Windows limitations, what are you going to do? Jobs's bet: You'll start spending more and more time in OS X, until you--too--become one of the pod people. It's sad to see so many of my compatriots being turned into lemmings. Perhaps they'll wake up and smell the Apple pie in the sky--and realize they've been taken for a ride. But I doubt it."

Blue Ring Around Uranus 269

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the too-many-hours-looking-through-a-telescope dept.
ZedNaught writes "The BBC is reporting that 'astronomers have discovered that the planet Uranus has a blue ring - only the second found in the Solar System. Like the blue ring of Saturn, it probably owes its existence to an accompanying small moon.' According to the April issue of Science, the blue ring is one of two new outer rings recently discovered around Uranus using the infrared Keck adaptive optics system. The rings are blue and red like Saturn's E and G rings. The blue ring around Saturn hosts the moon Enceladus while the Uranus ring contains the moon Mab."

Microsoft Releases MechCommander 2 Source Code 115

Posted by Zonk from the free-for-all dept.
SpectreHiro writes "In a shocking move, Microsoft has open sourced... err, 'shared the source' of MechCommander 2. From the site, 'This is the Shared Source release for MechCommander 2. This release contains all of the source code an source assets required to build MechCommander 2. This release can be used with the Microsoft XNA Build March 2006 CTP.'

Design Process Behind the Xbox 360 36

Posted by Zonk from the there-are-humans-and-they-have-to-play-it dept.
Jason writes "I recently attended a SIGCHI (Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction) where the presenters talked through some of the design process and user experience work conducted during the design and development of the Xbox 360. Understanding the user experience isn't just about traditional software any more; Gaming software deserves the same attention to detail graphics software receives."

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