Comment Re:The Solution is Obvious (Score 1) 829
Out of curiosity, for what reason would you rather run windows (which includes a graphics subsystem) but not x11?
Comment Re:I have a toaster with a cpu... (Score 1) 296
What if it runs NetBSD?
Comment Re:Frist! (Score 1) 272
I am using a 85MB caviar hard drive in an old dos gaming machine.
Comment Re:seems to be missing a few points (Score 1) 828
But he seems actually worried mainly about tenured professors who are doing good research, because they aren't paying enough attention to teaching. Good teachers need to exist, but so do good researchers--- the problem with today's university is not that there are too many good senior researchers. If anything, the opposite.
The problem is researchers and teachers get jumbled into the same mass when it comes to advertising. Having the best theoretical physicists doing research does nothing for an physics undergrad.
Peter Molyneux On Developmental Experimentation 55
Gamasutra reports on a talk given at GDC by Peter Molyneux, founder of Lionhead Studios and designer of games such as Black & White and Fable. Molyneux discussed some of the experimentation that went into the development of their various games. Quoting:
"After his overview of the process, Molyneux demonstrated a number of actual experiments. He began by showing an early version of Fable II's dog, which he himself designed and which ended up factoring heavily into the full game. 'This is probably one of the most valuable experiments we ever did,' he said. Using the original Fable engine, the team asked itself, 'Why don't we think how the dog can actually move and be a companion to the player?' They decided to focus on exploring what a dog would do, rather than try to slot a canine into existing typical video game companion tasks. This led to the mechanic of the dog running out in front of the player, rather than beside or behind the player as most game AI companions are positioned, which had a huge impact on the dog's role."
Comment Re:Tinfoil (Score 1) 509
Are you implying in five to ten years people will take extra math classes because it's cool?
Submission + - Many antivirus tools fail in LinuxWorld test (darkreading.com)
talkinsecurity writes: "In a public, side-by-side test conducted last night at LinuxWorld, ten antivirus products were confronted with 25 known viruses. The results were surprisingly disparate. Only three of the products caught all of the viruses; three only caught 61 percent, and one caught an abysmal 6 percent. The test, which wasn't particularly complicated, proves that there still are wide differences in the effectiveness of AV tools. A lot of people think all AV tools are the same — they're not!
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=131 246&WT.svl=news1_1"
Submission + - William Gibson gives up on the future
Tinkle writes: Sci-fi novellist William Gibson has given up trying to predict the future — because he says it's become far too difficult. In an interview with silicon.com, Gibson explains why his latest book is set in the recent past.
From the Q&A:
"We hit a point somewhere in the mid-18th century where we started doing what we think of technology today and it started changing things for us, changing society. Since World War II it's going literally exponential and what we are experiencing now is the real vertigo of that — we have no idea at all now where we are going."
"Will global warming catch up with us? Is that irreparable? Will technological civilisation collapse? There seems to be some possibility of that over the next 30 or 40 years or will we do some Verner Vinge singularity trick and suddenly become capable of everything and everything will be cool and the geek rapture will arrive? That's a possibility too."
From the Q&A:
"We hit a point somewhere in the mid-18th century where we started doing what we think of technology today and it started changing things for us, changing society. Since World War II it's going literally exponential and what we are experiencing now is the real vertigo of that — we have no idea at all now where we are going."
"Will global warming catch up with us? Is that irreparable? Will technological civilisation collapse? There seems to be some possibility of that over the next 30 or 40 years or will we do some Verner Vinge singularity trick and suddenly become capable of everything and everything will be cool and the geek rapture will arrive? That's a possibility too."
Submission + - House approves warrantless wiretapping.
An anonymous reader writes: The House of Representatives voted 227-183 to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow warrantless wiretapping of telephone and electronic communications. The vote extends the FISA amendment for six months. The final vote results are available here.
Submission + - iD and Valve violating GPL
frooge writes: With the recent release of iD's catalog on Steam, it appears DOSBox is being used to run the old DOS games for greater compatibility. According to a post on the Halflife2.net forums, however, this distribution does not contain a copy of the GPL license that DOSBox is distributed under, which violates the license. According to the DOSBox developers, they were not notified that it was being used for this release.
Submission + - Film on music piracy released as Xvid torrent (goodcopybadcopy.net)
goodbye_kitty writes: "The producers of a new documentary film analyzing global music piracy have decided to "put their money where their mouth is" by releasing the film as a free Xvid download (hosted by the pirate bay, as one would expect). The film explores the blurred line between "fair use" and piracy, and includes interviews with DJ Danger Mouse (creator of the now infamous 'grey album'), Lawrence Lessig (found of Creative Commons), the lads from the pirate bay, and even some guy from the MPAA. Link to torrent here"
Submission + - Elton John: 'Close Down the Internet!' (zeropaid.com)
Jared writes: "Says that it's "destroying good music" and "stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff." Laments the way that the internet and the emerging industry of digital music has created a cold and impersonal world for artists to create new music in. He says that it is "destroying good music, and that "The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff."
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8947/Elton+John%3A+'C lose+Down+the+Internet!'"
Submission + - How do you build a new internet? | Guardian.co.uk (guardian.co.uk)
Kraisch writes: "How do you cut online crime, tackle child pornography, halt crippling viruses and get rid of spam? The answers could lie in a £200m successor to the internet that computer experts are already referring to as the next rendition of the virtual world.
Researchers in the US want at least $350m (£175m) to build the Global Environment for Network Innovations (Geni), touted by some as the possible replacement for today's internet. In Europe, similar projects are under way as part of the EU's Future and Internet Research (Fire) programme, which is expected to cost at least £27m."
Submission + - DRM Scorecard: Hackers 1000, Industry Zero 2
An anonymous reader writes: InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe put together a scorecard which makes the obvious but interesting point that, when you list every major DRM technology implemented to "protect" music and video, they've all been cracked. This includes Apple's FairPlay, Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, the old-style Content Scrambling System (CSS) used on early DVDs and the new AACS for high-definition DVDs. And of course there was the Sony Rootkit disaster of 2005. Can anyone think of a DRM technology which hasn't been cracked, and of course this begs the obvious question: Why doesn't the industry just give up and go DRM-free?
Submission + - New Hack Exploits Common Programming Error (techtarget.com)
buzzardsbay writes: "TechTarget's security editor, Dennis Fisher is reporting that researchers at Watchfire Inc. have discovered a reliable method for exploiting a common programming error, which until now had been considered simply a quality problem and not a security vulnerability.
According to the article, the researchers stumbled upon the method for remotely exploiting dangling pointers by chance while they were running the company's AppScan software against a Web server. The good folks at Watchfire will detail the technique in a presentation at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas in August, Fisher writes."
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