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Comment Re:Unfortunately, it's in 3D (Score 1) 599

by Dekar (#42289427) Attached to: Why <em>The Hobbit's</em> 48fps Is a Good Thing

I would be willing to see it in 48fps (as a second viewing), but likely never will get the chance to see it, because that version is only offered in 3D. Beyond the fact that I don't see any benefit to 3D, it gives me a massive headache within minutes.

I still don't understand the industry's obsession with 3D. Even my young nieces and nephews don't care about it. Never mind...I do understand. They get more money for it. I wonder if that actually makes 3D a boon for theaters too small to afford the new projectors.

3D gives me headaches at crappy theaters too, but a good 3D movie at a good theater (iMax in my case) is wonderful.
It's very distracting in a movie like Transformers, however, where most scenes are cheap fake 3D, but scenes that are purely CGI (mainly robot fights) look very nice.

I'll watch The Hobbit there, and meanwhile, I hope the fake 3D crap and cheap "3D" theaters die out.
Image

Facebook Boosts Your Self-Esteem 139

Posted by samzenpus from the friend-request-yourself dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Using Facebook can increase your self-esteem, according to a new study from Cornell University researchers, published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Researchers Amy Gonzales and Jeffrey Hancock conducted the experiment with three groups of 21 students each in the university's Social Media Lab. The first one was the control group, which sat in front of blank computer screens for three minutes. The second group of individuals had mirrors propped up against their computer monitors and spent their three minutes looking at their own reflections. The third group was allowed to surf their own Facebook profiles and its associated tabs for the allotted time. At the end, all three groups were given a self-esteem questionnaire."

Comment Re:Day Traders (Score 1) 200

by Dekar (#34099984) Attached to: Developing <em>StarCraft 2</em> Build Orders With Genetic Algorithms

Bots perform a ton better at day trading, and in the stocks market in general, than they currently do at games like Starcraft or poker. I'd say it's an entirely different set of skills.

Besides, day trading really doesn't contribute more to society than playing SC2 does, it might actually be the other way around. The only change would be his personal wealth and overall happiness, which are in no way proportional.
Image

Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Programming

The State of Ruby VMs — Ruby Renaissance 89

Posted by Soulskill from the take-your-pick dept.
igrigorik writes "In the short span of just a couple of years, the Ruby VM space has evolved to more than just a handful of choices: MRI, JRuby, IronRuby, MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, REE and BlueRuby. Four of these VMs will hit 1.0 status in the upcoming year and will open up entirely new possibilities for the language — Mac apps via MacRuby, Ruby in the browser via Silverlight, object persistence via Smalltalk VM, and so forth. This article takes a detailed look at the past year, the progress of each project, and where the community is heading. It's an exciting time to be a Rubyist."
Medicine

New Flu Strain Appears In the US and Mexico 315

Posted by Soulskill from the fluent-in-english-and-spanish dept.
Combat Wombat writes with this excerpt from Reuters: "A strain of flu never seen before has killed up to 60 people in Mexico and also appeared in the United States, where eight people were infected but recovered, health officials said on Friday. Mexico's government said at least 20 people have died of the flu and it may also be responsible for 40 other deaths. [The government] shut down schools and canceled major public events in Mexico City to try to prevent more deaths in the sprawling, overcrowded capital. ... Close analysis showed the disease is a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC. Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people. Mexico reported 1,004 suspected cases of the new virus, including four possible cases in Mexicali on the border with California.
PC Games (Games)

Does Professional Gaming Have a Future? 116

Posted by Soulskill from the fatal-one-thank-you dept.
mr_sifter writes "Three years ago, celebrity gamers such as Fatal1ty were bagging millions in prizes, and TV channels were queuing up to broadcast games on TV. Professional gaming looked set for the big time. It never happened, and in the current economic crisis, sponsors and media organizations are cutting costs, resulting in the closure of many pro gaming competitions (as we recently discussed) and a down-scaling in prize money. This feature looks at whether pro gaming can bounce back, and whether it will always be a PC sport, or if pro gaming on consoles is the future."
GUI

New Diablo 3 Images; Design Wins Over Darkness 243

Posted by timothy from the beyond-none-more-black dept.
KingofGnG writes "The new Diablo III screenshots highlight the strong chromatic variations existing between the dungeons and the various stages ... It appears obvious, however, that all those details enriching the scenes, the crumbling parapets of the paths within the dungeons, the plants and the ragged drapes lightened by candles, would lose the best part of their raison d'etre if put in monochrome palettes inclined to black."

Comment Poker players knew it (Score 2, Insightful) 309

by Dekar (#24585631) Attached to: Inferring Personality From Email Addresses

We've been using nickname tells in online poker for years now. Poker is a game of imperfect information, so any little edge is good.

Obviously, someone like ShipItThx will usually be much better than jimmy35 or CIVIC4LIFE. Good players have even started to use reverse nickname tells, always thinking one step ahead.

These days, we usually look at the nicknames only to know in what range a player will be. Some names tell us he'll be an average player at best, while others tell us he'll either be a very good player or a complete donkey, but rarely just a semi-decent guy.

Next time a chunk of money comes aroun for random researches, give your fellow poker players a call. We know a thing or two about gaining information from pretty much anything.

Long-lived Mars Rovers to Keep on Roving 177

Posted by Zonk from the getting-to-be-nerd-mascots dept.
An anonymous reader writes with a link to a ComputerWorld article about the ongoing saga of the Martian rovers. They've overcome amazing obstacles and they show no signs of shutting down any time soon. "'After more than three and a half years, Spirit and Opportunity are showing some signs of aging, but they are in good health and capable of conducting great science,' John Callas, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. Since landing, the rovers have had to surmount a host of technical issues. Just a few weeks after landing, the Spirit rover had an out-of-memory problem that almost ended its mission before it began, but scientists were able to get the rover back into operation. In April 2004, both needed software updates to correct problems and improve their performance."

Can the Web Survive v3.0 217

Posted by CmdrTaco from the still-waiting-on-the-2.0-bugfixes dept.
robotsrule writes "The battle lines between skeptic and evangelist are already drawn. Either way, Web 3.0 will either be the new face of the Web that launched a thousand empty business plans, or the tipping point into a vastly more exciting phase of the Web. This Web 3.0 article asserts that the marraige of artificial intelligence to the infrastructure of Web 3.0 will dramatically accelerate our capacity for distributed problem solving. However, it also issues dire warnings on the potential hyper-euphoria that will accompany it."

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