Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Punkbuster service (Score 3, Interesting) 93

by Iron E (#26979999) Attached to: <em>Quake Live</em> Public Beta Launches To High Demand
Some of the hilarious wording from the Punkbuster license agreement:

Licensee agrees that the invasive nature of PunkBuster software is necessary to meet this purpose and goal. Licensee agrees that any harm or lack of privacy resulting from the installation and use of PunkBuster software is not as valuable to Licensee as the potential ability to play interactive online games with the benefits afforded by using PunkBuster software.

Comment Re:"Better" is relative... (Score 1) 334

by Iron E (#26627073) Attached to: Mozilla Donates $100K To the Ogg Project
That may have been valid in 2002 when Vorbis 1.0 was released, but by now its not much of an excuse. I have a Cowon G3 (released 2004) with official Vorbis support and it plays them without problems.

There's also the patent problem with MP3, although that should expire in the next couple of years.
Social Networks

Irish Gov't Seeks To Rein In Cyber Bullying 211

Posted by timothy from the hands-stuck-in-wringing-position dept.
An anonymous reader points out a story on the Irish Times that says "the Irish government is looking for ways to combat 'cyber-bullying' after data indicated that a significant percentage of young children are subjected to this kind of abuse via their mobile phone and popular social network accounts. The industry has been asked to come up with solutions for this problem and a government office is due to publish a guide on the issue in the near future. Surely this is a problem faced by children in all developed countries these days." Add "for the children" to the list of reasons to track the Web-site habits of mobile web users in Ireland.

Comment Re:If you need something done right do it yourself (Score 1) 430

by Iron E (#25406013) Attached to: Extended Gmail Outage Frustrates Admins
If the company does have a competent IT department, the boss will at least know what the problem is, that it is being worked on and get an estimate when the service is expected to be back. Afterwards he'll get a report why it happened and what is being done to minimize the chance of a similar outage in the future.

I'm not saying all IT stuff should be done in-house, but if you go with a giant like Google (for whom Gmail and GoogleApps isn't their main business), this negligible transparency seems the most you can expect.
Transportation

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spawns Real-Life Car 93

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the and-i'm-sure-it-will-be-affordable dept.
Car Analogy Please writes to tell us that a new car unveiled at the Paris Auto Show was modeled after the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue car. GTbyCITROËN is the first car that has been designed in tandem with a video game to then spill out onto the actual pavement. "The GTbyCITROËN is the product of a partnership built up during the creation of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Takumi Yamamoto, from Citroen and Kazunori Yamauchi from Polyphony Digital Inc, the games developer were inspired by each others industries to design a concept car for the game that then flowed further into the real-world. The game version of the car mirrors the real-world performance of the concept."

Techies Asked To Train Foreign Replacements 765

Posted by Zonk from the have-a-good-trip dept.
Makarand writes "David Lazarus of the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Bank of America (BofA) is moving thousands of tech jobs to India and has asked its techies to train their Indian replacements or risk losing severance pay. Although there is nothing in writing that says precisely this, the employees have been made clear about this responsibility in their meetings. BofA is outsourcing tech work to Indian companies whose employees do the work at half the cost of what a U.S. worker gets paid. According to an estimate, outsourcing has allowed the bank to save about $100 million over the past five years."

The Potential of Science With the Cell Processor 176

Posted by Zonk from the making-a-station-play dept.
prostoalex writes "High Performance Computing Newswire is running an article on a paper by computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They have evaluated the processor's performance in running several scientific application kernels, then compared this performance against other processor architectures. The full paper is available from Computer Science department at Berkeley."

Should Companies Delay Products for More Features? 136

Posted by Zonk from the more-features-means-more-flavour dept.
conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece looking at if it makes sense for companies such as Sony to delay the release of products to ensure that when they do come out they are absolutely top of the line. From the article: 'In the tech world, where consumer trends can rise and fall and product cycles are short, that's more often the exception than the rule. The penalty for a delay can be severe -- even catastrophic. One of the biggest risks in postponing a product launch is being out-hustled to market by rivals.'"

Aero To Be Unavailable To Pirates 630

Posted by Zonk from the no-shiny-for-you dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Users thinking of pirating the next version of Windows may have a surprise in store: no Aero for you. The upcoming Microsoft OS will run a check to ensure the copy was legally purchased. If it comes up short, the shiniest part of the OS will not be available." From the article: "At first an optional program, the piracy check eventually became mandatory for many types of Windows XP downloads, but was not required to run any aspect of the operating system itself. Microsoft has identified reducing piracy as a key way for the company to grow its sales of Windows, which is already used on more than 90 percent of personal computers. But it's not just pirates who will be blocked from Windows' fanciest graphics. The Aero display also won't be available to those who buy Windows Vista Basic, the low-end consumer version of the operating system."

Sci-Fi Weapons to Join US Arsenal? 601

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the sci-fi-to-sci-tech dept.
marct22 writes to tell us CNet is reporting that the next weapons coming out of the US arsenal could be stepping right off the pages of science fiction to be there. From the article: "By the end of this year, the Air Force plans to conduct a first, fully loaded test flight of its Airborne Laser, a jumbo jet packed with gear designed to shoot down enemy missiles half a world away, at the speed of light. The ABL also packs a megawatt-class punch--it's not exactly your garden-variety laser pointer."

NASA Launches Educational Website 74

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the soon-to-be-stifled-by-political-edict dept.
Rob writes to tell us Computer Business Review magazine is reporting that NASA has launched a new educational site targeting children in kindergarten through fourth grade. From the article: "The website aims to appeal to both parents and educators wishing to help develop children's knowledge in subjects such as science, technology and mathematics. [...] 'Our goal with the Kids' Club is to provide a medium that encourages children's interest in exploring the subjects important to developing early skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,' said Angela Phillips Diaz, NASA's acting assistant administrator for education."

OMG WIRELESS EXTENSION CORDS!!! LOL!!! 182

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-thats-what-i'm-talking-about dept.
True ChAoS writes "Using the latest in microwave energy transmission technology, the Wireless Extension Cords (WECs) 'beam' power right where you need it. Broadcasting in the 7.2GHz range, the WECs will not interfere with wireless networks, phones, or Bluetooth components. Be sure to heed all the warnings in the instruction manual; the microwaves used are relatively safe, but you don't want to cook your computer (or coworkers) by mistake." ThinkGeek is also owned by OSTG.

The Epic in Unreal Engine 3 82

Posted by Zonk from the very-imposing-or-impressive-surpassing-the-ordinary dept.
CNN's Game On column has a look at Gears of War developer Epic Games. The piece goes into the company's success as a tools merchant as well as a game developer. They discuss the excitement that Unreal Engine 3 has generated, both for AAA and less ambitious titles. From the article: "Several titles, including the forthcoming 'HoopWorld' and 'RoboHordes,' will use the engine for less than AAA games. And don't be surprised if educational titles or children's games use the engine as the Xbox 360 reaches the end of its life cycle. While Epic will continue enhancing and improving Unreal Engine 3 for the next four or five years, work has already begun on Unreal Engine 4, which the company sees as a powering force for the fourth PlayStation and third Xbox machines."

DoJ Following Porn Blocker Advances? 265

Posted by Zonk from the dirty-little-program dept.
GreedyCapitalist writes "A new filter called iShield is able to recognize porn images based on the content of the image (other filters look at URLs and text) and according to PC Magazine, it is very effective. The next generation will probably be even better -- which highlights the retarding effect regulation has on technological progress - if we relied solely on government to ban 'inappropriate' content from the web, we'd never know what solutions the market might come up with. Will the DOJ (which argues that porn filters don't work) take note of filtering innovation or continue its quest for censorship?"

Slashdot Top Deals

"jackpot: you may have an unneccessary change record" -- message from "diff"

Close