Archive for November 17th, 2006
Gears of War trailer… with the correct song?
Fark Headline – When you have only 10 PS3s to sell and 50 customers waiting outside, just put ten chairs in the parking lot and have everybody race for it. What could possibly go wrong?
Posted by martissimo on Fark: “I went to the Canoga Park, Ca Best Buy, we were told we could line up at 12:01 am, till then we waited off the property on the sidewalk, made a list of names in order we arrived, and at midnight queued up. about 4am a guy inside opens the shutters says we have to get out till 8am. Back to our sidewalk we go.
By the time 6am rolls around we are informed it will be a sprint to see who gets what spot in line.
We had 200 people at a full sprint, 1 guy in his 50s or so i’d assume took a hard faceplant in the jostling that occurred during the run, his face was destroyed. His son also went down, 2 broken fingers was what it looked like but who knows. 2 others went down hard but seemed not too much worse for the wear.
Once we got to the wall, people tried to get in a VERY tight single file line against the wall so nobody could squeeze in and steal their spots, the latecomers charged into the line as hard as they could to free a crack to get into, while others that had gotten their first were body slammed into the walls with pretty substantial first (there were children included in this group)
Even the cops (they kept a close on us during the night being on the sidewalk and all) that were there for this fiasco called the manager an idiot and suggested mailing corporate offices about this mess.”
Time Magazine Gets Caught Lying
Straight from Honest Reporting: “So the on-the-scene photographer collects evidence that this so called Hizbollah “victory” was a lie and in reality the result of a legitimate and successful Israeli attack on a military target. Furthermore, his picture is evidence of cooperation between the “neutral” Lebanese Army and the Hizbollah terror group. Even more compelling was that his pictures show evidence that rocket launchers were being hidden inside civilian trucks. Yet while these issues were ignored by his editors, the same editors rewrote his caption to create a story that never took place, a story that Hizbollah used for propaganda.”
Ballmer: Linux users owe Microsoft
Microsoft CEO says Linux “uses our intellectual property”
Straight from Computerworld: “In comments confirming the open-source community’s suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft’s intellectual property.
In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux “uses our intellectual property” and Microsoft wanted to “get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation.”"
PS3 camper gives up right to ever own PS3 for free $7500 PC from PC Gamer
Straight from Digg: “The staff of PC Gamer magazine gave away a $7500 Falcon Northwest rig to one of the first people in line at the Sony Metreon camping for a PS3. The winner stepped out of line, cut his wristband, and signed a contract saying he could never buy or own a PS3.”
Battlefield-ready iRobots roll into Washington
Straight from Engadget: ” Considering India, South Korea, and Germany are apparently already stocking up on robotic replacements to man their respective armies, we Americans better get on the ball. We’ve known the Pentagon has been on a quest to find autonomous replacements to tried and true human soldiers, and it looks like help is on the way from our favorite floor-cleaning supplier, iRobot. Holding true to prior expectations, the company’s products were out in full force at the Association of the United States Army show, as a myriad of self-directed ‘bots induced frightening thoughts of mutiny and widespread anarchy. The “armed and dangerous” bevy of creations boasted automatic shotguns, bomb launchers, precision sniper rifles, infrared cameras, and even a 30-caliber chaingun. The machines were touted as “lifesavers,” insinuating that their presence on the battlefield would allow soldiers to hang back out of harm’s way — but we aren’t exactly certain how these deadly automatons actually distinguish between friendlies and foes. Nevertheless, we’re working under the assumption that unlike more “chore-friendly versions,” these iRobots won’t be seeing any shelf time outside of maximum security armories — but it’s for our own good, anyway.”
Boeing’s Advanced Tactical Laser to take out ground targets
Straight from Engadget: “While ground-based lasers might provide some semblance of security, what any science fiction fan really wants is aircraft-mounted lasers to take out evildoers whilst patrolling the skies. Fortunately for the American military, that day may come sooner than one might think. Late last week, Boeing announced the “first light” of its “high-energy chemical laser in ground tests, achieving two key milestones in the laser gunship development effort.” In other words, the new “Advanced Tactical Laser” can pretty much take out anything on the ground (and we assume eventually in the sky as well). The best part? The laser is scalable, “meaning the weapon operator will be able to select the degree and nature of the damage done to a target by choosing a specific aimpoint and laser shot duration. For example, targeting the fuel tank of a vehicle could result in total destruction of the vehicle, while targeting a tire might result in the vehicle stopping without injury to the driver.” Now that’s freakin’ sweet.”
Neanderthal: 99.5 Percent Human
Straight from LiveScience.com: “Humans and their close Neanderthal relatives began diverging from a common ancestor about 700,000 years ago, and the two groups split permanently some 300,000 years later, according to two of the most detailed analyses of Neanderthal DNA to date.
Using different techniques, two teams of scientists separately sequenced large chunks of DNA extracted from the femur of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal specimen found in a cave [image] 26 years ago in Croatia. One team sequenced more than one million base pairs and the other 65,000 pairs of the genome.
The achievements could help shed light on the evolution of our own species, and it paves the way for building a complete library of the Neanderthal genome, the scientists say.”
NASA Proposes Manned Asteroid Mission
Straight from Slashdot: “NASA has proposed a manned asteroid mission to a near earth object. They mention this being viewed as a “gap-filler” to keep the public’s attention between a lunar exploration & manned mars mission. The article also cites these goals as in line with the Constellation Program. From the article, ‘Furthermore, a human venture to a space rock may well accelerate precursor robotic surveys of asteroids, Schweickart observed. “Early unmanned visits to asteroids … it’s the same pattern as we did with the Moon and we’re doing right now with Mars. It’s all pretty logical,” he told SPACE.com.’”
Fark Headline – After cancelling his auto insurance, man jokes to wife, “You watch, Liberty Mutual is going to cancel our homeowners policy.” Bingo
Straight from the St. Petersburg Times: “Frank Pallini had his suspicions, but he took the gamble anyway.
The day Pallini canceled his auto insurance with Liberty Mutual so he could save nearly $1,000 by going with another company, he joked to his wife, “You watch, Liberty Mutual is going to cancel our homeowners policy.’’
About a month later, that’s exactly what happened.
Pallini, a 52-year-old St. Petersburg real estate consultant, was notified last week that the homeowners policy he has had with Liberty Mutual for 17 years would not be renewed, even though it is not up for renewal until late August.”
Microsoft to indemnify Red Hat users?
Straight from Ars Technica: “Following the controversial patent indemnification agreement between Microsoft and Novell last week, Microsoft representatives expressed interest in creating similar deals with other major Linux distributors. The patent agreement, which has become a source of much controversy within the open source community, is an unusual cross-licensing arrangement. Novell pays Microsoft a royalty fee, and in return the Redmond software giant agrees not to sue any of Novell’s customers.Red Hat has been one of the most vocal critics of the deal, and has rejected Microsoft’s offer of a similar arrangement. Red Hat considers the agreement to be a form of intellectual property extortion and has condemned it as an “innovation tax” that could potentially “isolate communities or limit upstream adoption.” Citing its own prior patent pledge and its participation in the Open Invention Network, Red Hat feels that Microsoft’s patent agreement is unnecessary and could potentially be detrimental to the open source community community.”
