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Comment Re:Control Data Cyber 180 (Score 2) 78

It is located in western Canada. Does anybody know of a place that would want something like this or should we just sell it for metal recycling?

0.o

It just so happens that TFA gives you a list of places to contact. Seriously, I know it's something of a Slashdot tradition to not read TFA, but this takes the cake.

I checked them out and a few even have wishlists so I know what they're looking for. I will be contacting the ones that don't. But maybe there is some other group that would like this hardware in particular. Did you even think of that? That there may be more than just the 9 places in the article that might want this? Oh look at that, someone replied with a lead that wasn't part of TFA!

You can have your cake back.

Comment Control Data Cyber 180 (Score 4, Interesting) 78

My in-laws have a Control Data Cyber 180 system that has been sitting in a barn for probably almost 10 years. They would really love to get rid of it but we have no idea where to send it. It includes a bunch of other heavy manufacturing equipment. Also what appears to be a CO2 laser head by GTE Sylvania. Klischograph K181. Magnetic tape stuff. I can't remember what else.

It has been in a barn so at least kept out of rain and snow but not so much the -40C weather and the few pigeons that like to sit in the rafters above it.

It is located in western Canada. Does anybody know of a place that would want something like this or should we just sell it for metal recycling?

Comment The actual law states (Score 1) 1590

That the cop must have a valid reason for making legal contact. This means the individual is already under investigation for another crime or the police has probable cause to stop the individual. Then if during questioning he has reason to believe that person's legal status in the country may not be what he represent then he can ask for the required documents that visitors and legal foreign residents are required, by federal law, to carry. U.S. citizens just need to show a driver's license, state issue id or a valid passport. Just like when starting a job. The governor also issued an executive order requiring classes and training to avoid any type of racial profiling. Now as to the real reason why this law was passed 1) Phoenix, the state capital, is the kidnapping capital of the nation because of the illegal immigration. 2) It is not safe to live any where near the border with Mexico. Just ask the people who live in border towns like Bisbee, Nogales or Douglas. Or even the family of the rancher that was killed simply because he was on his land when illegal immigrants were trespassing. 3) No fencing along the border with Mexico along with inadequate patrols and no anticipation of any improvements. Now someone will mention how our wonderful Secretary of DOH stated that the border is as secured as it ever was. Well Janet Napolitano used to be Governor of Arizona. Then when everything began falling apart like the state economy and the violence from Mexico spilling over into Arizona she was given a lifeboat out of the situation by Obama so she would not be stuck with any of the blame. The same Obama who has not provided any solutions so this law would not have even been considered let alone enacted.

Comment Nice marketing (Score 1) 178

I see nothing in that article that is a concrete design choice the GW2 team has made to specifically address the "problems" of current MMOs. They simply provide out-of-context examples of potentially cool scenarios. Wouldn't it be cool if we fired through walls of fire!!!! Yes it would, the first 15 times.

MMO design needs to take a radical step away from "MMO combat mechanics" into other directions (some people suggested more social aspects which I do not like) in order to be innovative. These mechanics were spawned by old school D&D mechanics by way of MUDs, and honestly, these ideas are OLD. Not all are bad, either. Until they do innovate though, no amount of marketing by game studios will convince me to subscribe to their new games. Neither will it convince all the people currently playing WoW to switch to something else.

There is a reason millions are playing that game. It provides cheap entertainment value for them, through a myriad of activities that, although repetitive, are greatly enhanced through the social aspect that is provided by online connectivity to a context of a world. Combat is boring, UNLESS you have to orchestrate with 25 people. Crafting is boring UNLESS you can sell your wares to a market economy. And so on.

As soon as a game is created to provide the same or greater entertainment value to people, they will jump. It just has to be innovative enough to make them jump. And yeah, open world group quests already failed, with WAR. That game could have been a radical attempt to reforge the MMO landscape, but the designers instead opted to play it safe and re-create WoW. Who will be next? From what I have read it doesn't seem like GW2 is ready to take up that cup.
The Almighty Buck

Activision Hit With $500m Suit From Modern Warfare 2 Devs 77

Dragoniz3r writes "Activision has been served a lawsuit from 38 plaintiffs, including present and former Infinity Ward employees, demanding up to half a billion dollars. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for 'unpaid bonuses, royalties, profit-sharing, and future profits from games such as Modern Warfare 3, and punitive damages.'"
Businesses

Comcast Awarded the Golden Poo Award 286

ISoldat53 writes "The Consumerist has awarded Comcast the Golden Poo award for the worst company in America. From the article: 'After four rounds of bloody battle against some of the most publicly reviled businesses in America, Comcast can now run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and hold its hands high in victory — it has bested everyone else to earn the title of Worst Company In America for 2010.'"

Comment Re:A big flop (Score 1) 206

GSM phones transmit their IMEI (jumps directly to the interesting bits) to the network provider during sign-on. This number contains a TAC allowing the provider to identify what model, in some cases what revision of said model you're using.

Whether or not AT&T uses this information, I can't tell you. All I know is several providers do. Call second-level support and ask if they can tell you what kind of handset you're on. If they can (and you didn't buy it in their store), they check. If they can't, they may still check but not expose this info to CSRs.

Comment Re:Cognitive dissonance (Score 4, Insightful) 224

Several possibilities.

1. The software author was contributing to a project that he/she saw their own benefits from, and therefore were compensated by the resulting product. In a few smaller projects, a single person writes code entirely for their own benefit, then releases the code because someone else might want to use it, too. In this case, their time was "free" in terms of money, they compensated themselves with the results of their own work then offered out a copy of it for others to benefit from as well.

This, by the way, is why FOSS is often compared to "communism" (not the totalitarian kind as we've seen practiced, but the purer Marxian kind of "from each according to ability, to each according to need"). Everyone in a project like this is free to contribute whatever they can or want to, and everyone benefits from all of the contributions. Of course, where communism in the real world breaks down is in simple resource limitations - a lot of people want to take according to need, but not give according to ability. In the world of software development, you can have a very low number of givers and a very high number of takers and the model still works as long as you have some givers. And if the givers are benefiting themselves by creating what they themselves need, then they are building their own compensation.

2. The software was written under contract for a specific company to solve a specific problem and that company is not using the software for competitive advantage, so they release the code for others to use. It can also mean that software they use themselves can be improved by others at no cost to them, so symbiotic relationships can form.

3. The software was available in crude form and a company didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so they started with what was out there, improved it, and released the improved version as a way of "paying back" for the fact that the codebase saved them a crapload of development time. Or, in the case of a lot of projects, the company wants to sell you some hardware and they are OK with you doing other things with it once you've bought it (ie. what is now known as the Linksys WRT54GL series), so providing the source code moves more cheap generic-parts units off the shelf because the modding community wants to turn them into all sorts of crazy stuff.

In reality, most free software is the result of multiple of the above scenarios happening.

The fact is that while an author's time is not free, they can still give away the software under circumstances where enough people will give them small amounts of money (advertising on their download site, voluntary donations, or even kudos and appreciation to feed the ego for a spare-time project). They can also write software that benefits themselves and send it out, but if you want them to change it to suit your own needs you can offer them some money to make the changes, and the improved version can be released for all to enjoy.

I've seen projects where the original author makes the source code available, then uses "paypal voting" for new features. "Many people have asked me for feature 'x'. It's going to take me about 8 hours to write it, and I'm out of beer and nachos. If you want me to add feature 'x', send money and tell me it's for feature 'x' - when my donations for feature 'x' hit $400, I'll write it and release it for all to enjoy."

Comment Re:Legacy apps (Score 3, Interesting) 479

Many apps that run on IE 6 will not run correctly on IE 7 (not even thinking about IE8 yet). It can cost a company millions of dollars to upgrade or redevelop their proprietary applications and for what? Tabs? A fully patched IE 6 is just as secure as IE7, so why upgrade? I think many companies will skip over IE 7 and go straight to IE 8 when they upgrade machines from XP to Win7.

Pretty much this, but I would like to expand this to state that at my company, we'd LOVE to upgrade and get the hell off of IE6 for some of our users, but we simply can't without spending literally millions of dollars. For a small firm, this isn't an option. (Finance industry) There's a ton of vendor lock-in, and several of our biggest applications have us stuck. Are we taking steps to move off their proprietary locked in software? Of course. But it is a ridiculously slow process, and some of the managers involved simply don't give it the time necessary, as they have "bigger and better things to do". (Not my call, I'm not in those meetings and actually don't do helpdesk stuff unless the world is exploding.)

Comment No different than a toddler... (Score 1) 307

Take a toddler's "binky" (their security blanket) away from a toddler and they're the same way. They teenagers need their instant communication, their updates, twitters, facebook entries etc etc etc. No different than my 2yr old sleeping with her stuffed animals.

Sure some kids survive fine when you tell them they are too old to have "a binky" but eventually, after a few tantrums, they survive. However, expect quite a bit of crying.

Space

New Europe-Wide Radio Telescope To Look For ET 49

astroengine writes "A new radio telescope is under construction, consisting of 44 stations (each consisting of several antennae) spread across Europe. The pan-European Low Frequency Array is half built and already returning unprecedented observations of cosmic radio sources. The best thing is, when it's complete, SETI will be able to use the array to seek out transmitting extraterrestrial civilizations in these untapped low radio frequencies."

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