Slashdot Mirror

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Students at the Digital Animation and Visual Effects (DAVE) School are working on a film that will bring everyone's favorite caped crusader to life through the magic of computer-generated LEGO blocks. 'Batman: New Times' features Adam West as the voice of Batman, Mark Hammil as the Joker, Dick Van Dyke as Commissioner Gordon, and Courtney Thorne-Smith as Catwoman. A rather impressive trailer is available now."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "NFG Games offers an interesting look at the visual evolution of Nintendo's Mario from his humble beginnings as a monkey-chasing carpenter to his more recent incarnations as a Koopa-stomping plumber. The retrospective doesn't stray into 3D Mario territory, but it does include every 2D version of Mario released between 1981 and 2004 -- including early consoles like the Atari 2600 and Colecovision."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "The AP reports today that the U.S. government has no plans to create a do-not-spam registry in the immediate future. Why not? They argue that the proper technology is not yet in place. 'A national do-not-e-mail registry, without a system in place to authenticate the origin of e-mail messages, would fail to reduce the burden of spam and may even increase the amount of spam received by consumers,' said the commission." The moral of the story is: never try. See the FTC's press release or their report (pdf).

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "News.com reports that the recording industry is currently testing technology that would limit the number of times that a given CD (or copies of that CD) could be burned. The idea is to let consumers 'make a limited number of copies of their music -- enough for a car, a vacation home and a friend, for example -- without allowing for uncontrolled duplication.' Currently, Macrovision and SunnComm International are developing competing versions of such 'secure burning' technology, with BMG Music Group already testing the latter company's software."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "The New York Times offers up a thought-provoking article ('First With the Scoop, if Not the Truth' - free reg. req.) on Ana Marie Cox, proprietor of the popular inside-the-beltway gossip blog Wonkette. Known for her site's 'gossipy, raunchy, potty-mouthed' coverage of Washington politics, site owner Nick Denton is quoted in the article as saying, 'I think it's implicit in the way that a Web site is produced that our standards of accuracy are lower. Besides, immediacy is more important than accuracy, and humor is more important than accuracy.' Needless to say, such a statement raises some interesting questions about the growing influence of blogs and other non-traditional online news sources. That being said, does the nature of the World Wide Web in fact give sites like Wonkette, Drudge, or even Slashdot a free pass on accuracy if it means the difference between getting the scoop or not?"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported by News.com, Microsoft quietly launched Channel 9, a blog/discussion forum aimed at improving communication with outside developers, on Tuesday. Named for the audio channel that many airlines use to let passengers listen in on crew conversations during flight, Channel 9's creators state the following in a welcoming message: 'Five of us in Redmond are crazy enough to think we just might learn something from getting to know each other...Join in, and have a look inside our cockpit and help us fly the plane.'"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported by CNN.com, the European Union has hit Microsoft with a record US$613 million fine after a five-year investigation, finding the company guilty of abusing the 'near-monopoly' of the Windows operating system. Microsoft has been given 90 days to make a European version of Windows available without a media player and 120 days to give programming codes to rivals in the server market to allow 'full interoperability' with desktops running Windows. Microsoft plans to appeal the decision." Other readers point to coverage at the BBC, ZDNet, Reuters (here carried by Yahoo!), and abc.au.net.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Following rumors of wireless connectivity, movie playback, and a touch-screen interface, CNN/Money reports today that Nintendo's upcoming dual-screen portable will also incorporate instant messaging into its ever-growing feature set. The DS would most likely offer local IM service via its radio-frequency wireless networking hardware, with users typing messages on the portable's touch screen using a stylus. The article also discusses physical design of the DS: 'The form factor will feature two three-inch screens that fold together, similar to that of the Game Boy Advance,' says one industry analyst quoted in the article. 'There will be two flipper controls, two directional pads, and an 'A' and 'B' button. The stylus will be used for gaming, Instant Messaging, and other multimedia functionalities.' The Nintendo DS: it slices, it dices, it juliennes!"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Sex, violence, animal cruelty, and scandalous pixels -- GameSpot has posted an in-depth feature examining the history of controversy in the video game industry. The feature examines several "major offenders" dating back as far as Death Race in the arcades up through more recent games like Grand Theft Auto III and Manhunt. Also included in the feature is coverage of the so-called "retail rogues" (games controversial enough that they were pulled from the shelves), as well as a docket of game-industry lawsuits and a look at the lighter side of game controversy. Who wants to bet that that the use-confiscated-drugs-for-short-term-benefit gameplay of Midway's upcoming NARC will make the cut in future articles about video game controversy?"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported by GameSpot, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata indicated in a recent interview (Japanese-language) that the company's upcoming dual-screen portable (previously covered on Slashdot) will feature wireless Bluetooth-esque connectivity for multiplayer gaming. Iwata goes on in the interview to describe the Nintendo DS as a 'unique' machine, noting that 'not everybody will understand it right away. There might only be 10 to 15 people applauding during its unveiling at the E3, but they'll understand it once they touch it. At the least, it should serve as a hint towards [our] next-generation console.'" Although we've covered Iwata interviews recently, this now makes a little more sense given the context of the DS announcement.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "This week, GameSpy is serving up a variety of articles regarding Cryptic Studios' upcoming massively multiplayer superhero PC roleplaying game, City of Heroes (following up on its December 2003 preview). The preview offers hands-on impressions of the game, a look at the origin and ongoing adventures of Kingblade (an in-game character created by one of the editors), a roundtable with the developers, several screenshot galleries, and more. City of Heroes is currently in beta and scheduled for released on April 27, 2004. Will it join the ranks of Freedom Force in breaking the legendary superhero game curse? Only time will tell, true believers!" There's more info on this NCSoft-published game at COH Stratics and the official site.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As a tie-in with its March 2004 cover story on the search phenomenon that is Google, Wired has posted its Complete Guide to Googlemania. Written before Google delayed its IPO earlier this month, the feature nevertheless offers a series of interesting articles focused on the search engine giant. Particularly interesting sections include Googlemaniacs (in which 'superusers' like Matt Groening and Garry Trudeau discuss how they use Google on a daily basis), a look at how blog comment spammers have taken advantage of Google's PageRank system, and a gallery of hypothetical interface redesigns by a group of artists and graphic designers."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "With technology improving and costs droppings, News.com offers up an interesting report on renewed interest in delivering broadband Internet access via power lines (a technology known as BPL). Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a new set of rules for utility companies that might want to offer BPL services as a way to 'encourage broadband for the entire United States' -- particularly hard-to-reach rural areas. As the article notes, EarthLink has already started testing BPL service in using power lines leased in Wake County, North Carolina. Could cable and DSL face a new competitor in the broadband market in the near future?"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Title Fight: The Ultimate Gaming Grudge -- a tournament in which gamers can vote to determine the greatest game of all time -- is underway at GameSpy. The rules for the tournament are simple: '64 games enter, one game leaves.' Polls are now open for the qualifying round, allowing gamers to choose titles from a wide range of genres that will eventually comprise approximately half of the 64-game final bracket. Qualifying will last until February 22, and first-round voting will begin on February 23." This is somewhat reminiscent of the GameFAQs Character Battle tournaments, but featuring entire games, not just videogame characters - predictions for the finalists and overall winner are welcome.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpy has posted a timeline charting the history Sony's PlayStation 2, the third part in a series previously covered on Slashdot that includes similar retrospectives for the Xbox and for GameCube. The timeline traces the PlayStation 2's history from its initial boom, through its period as 'a repository for bad sports games, giant robot games, and other disappointing releases,' and up to the console's revitalization by such games as Gran Turismo 3, Metal Gear Solid 2, Devil May Cry, and Grand Theft Auto III." How has the PlayStation 2 measured up to your expectations?

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpy has posted an interesting article examining the so-called Seven Deadly Sins of the N-Gage. The 'sins' of Nokia's mobile phone/portable gaming unit cited in the article include problems with inserting and removing games, the less-than-intuitive interface, and the relatively high price. In all fairness, however, GameSpy also looked at the Seven Virtues of the N-Gage in an editorial from December 2003."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpot has offered up an amazingly in-depth history of SNK -- the company behind such classic games as Ikari Warriors, Fatal Fury, and King of Fighters, as well as the NeoGeo hardware system. The 39-page retrospective covers nearly every aspect of the company's 25-year history and includes an annotated list of key SNK titles, trivia, insider interviews, hardware comparisons, screenshots, promotional art, and more."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpy is running a feature looking at the editors' picks for the top real-time strategy games of all time. Included on the list are such classics as StarCraft, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, and Age of Empires. The article looks at each game's significance to the genre as a whole, as well as offering some reader feedback on the editors' choices. Why not grunt rush their server, have a look at their picks, and share some of your own RTS favorites here?"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Over at GameSpy, they're running a feature looking at the top ten handhelds that never made it. Included on the list are such 'favorites' as the Atari Lynx and the more recent Nokia N-Gage, as well as commentary by the GameSpy editors on why these portables failed to set the gaming world on fire."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "In January 2002, Microsoft launched an initiative called 'Trustworthy Computing' aimed at building better security into its products. It's now two years later, and News.com serves up a report card evaluating Microsoft's efforts. Kevin Kean, a group manager at Microsoft's Security Response Center, points out that customers are better off now than they were before the company made the move to refocus on security issues. An analyst quoted in the article, Stephen O'Grady, agrees that he would give Microsoft 'improved marks,' but also notes that the company is not yet where it needs to be in terms of security. He goes on to suggest, however, that 'the numbers indicate that they are at least taking it seriously.' It sounds like Microsoft might have earned itself an Incomplete on this report card."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Slashdot recently covered Lego's plan to stop producing its Mindstorms line in response to the Danish company's worst financial loss in history. While the original article linked focused primarily on Lego's plans to cease production on various toy lines, Yahoo News now has a follow-up article that looks in greater detail at Lego's plan for the future. 'We are returning to Lego's former concept,' says Lego owner and president Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. 'We're going to focus on building bricks as our main product, concentrating on little kids' eagerness to assemble.' Kristiansen goes on to blame the company's financial woes on its attempt to follow trends rather than focusing on its more traditional products. In turn, the company's plan for 2004 will include a renewed marketing push for Lego bricks as opposed to licensed products like the Harry Potter and Star Wars lines. Toy researcher Joern Martin Steenhold also notes the following in the article: 'All research, including my own, shows that computer games and other electronic games take up only 20 to 30 percent of children's play time. Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.' Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Each week, GameSpy inducts classic games into its Hall Of Fame 'either because of their brilliant gameplay (which makes them playable to this day), or because they innovated in such a way to reshape gaming as we know it,' and a noted inductee is none other than the classic dungeon crawl NetHack. GameSpy's article looks back on the history of NetHack, tracing its origins from Rogue all the way up to the present day, including humorous 'Tales of NetHack Addiction' along the way." Update: 01/06 04:04 GMT by S : Though listed as a 'Recent Highlight' on GameSpy's main page, this article, whilst worthwhile, is an old one.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "News.com offers up an in-depth three-part article discussing the game industry's race to develop an all-in-one digital 'uberdevice' to combine gaming, television, computing, and other consumer technologies in a single box. The article looks at the past, present, and future of such trends, arguing that these developments in the world of home gaming consoles 'could have multibillion-dollar consequences for industries as diverse as computing, consumer electronics, entertainment and communications, while redefining household entertainment.' Of course, the article also concludes by noting the fact that consumers have thus far shown relatively little interest in adopting such all-in-one convergence boxes. Could constantly improving technology, the ongoing exodus of young males from primetime television, and a revitalized marketing push turn the tide, or is the search for an 'uberdevice' just hype?"

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Despite Microsoft's recent retirement of Windows 98, News.com reports that many users continue to cling to the company's older operating systems. The study cited in the article suggests that 80 percent of companies still have machines operating on Windows 95 or 98. While Windows 2000 was the most common OS in the study, just 6.6 percent of the desktop machines included in the survey were running Windows XP." The results aren't too surprising. I get a lot of user mail from Netscape 4 users, and it only makes sense that they're running it somewhere.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported in this CNN.com article, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case next year (most likely in June) involving whether public schools can lead students in a 'voluntary' recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. At issue in this case is whether the inclusion of the phrase 'under God' in the pledge constitutes an establishment of religion on the part of the state and an infringement on students' religious liberty when it is recited in the public school setting. This case comes to the Supreme Court as an appeal of the June 2002 ruling made by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals--a decision that led to one of the most active stories in Slashdot history." The CNN article's emphasis on voluntariness -- "whether schoolchildren can be allowed to recite the Pledge voluntarily" -- is grossly misleading, almost propagandistic. Most states have laws requiring the pledge to be recited every day as a class activity, and these are the laws in question. In theory students shouldn't be punished for failing to recite along with the rest of the class (due to a previous Supreme Court decision). No state has a law prohibiting anyone from reciting the pledge voluntarily, whenever they want to.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "According to this Washington Post article, a federal appeals court in California has overturned a Federal Communications Commission decision that many smaller companies claim has kept them locked out of the high-speed cable Internet business. As Chris Murry of Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) notes, 'Many consumers hate their cable companies' privacy policies and their failure to deal with spam effectively. Giving consumers a choice of Internet service providers would open the door to more competition, and let people choose services with better privacy and less spam.' As noted in News.com coverage of this decision, however, FCC chairman Michael Powell plans to appeal the ruling." Reader rednaxela provides some more insight (and a link to the ruling itself), below.

rednaxela writes "The 9th Circuit today issued a decision overturning the FCC's classification of cable modem service as an 'information service,' stating instead that cable modem service consists of both an 'information service' *and* a 'telecommunications service.' Telecommunications services are classified under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and are subject to all kinds of regulation. Information Services are classified under Title I, and are largely free from regulation. If upheld, this decision will likely require cable modem providers to open their networks to competing ISPs. Further, this is likely to derail, or at least complicate, the FCC's plans to classify DSL service (which is provided primarily over incumbent telco facilities) as a unified 'information service." Bottom line - the 9th Circuit's decision may well have preserved open access for competing ISPs on all forms of wireline networks.' Here is the 9th Circuit's ruling (PDF).

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpy.com just posted the final installment of its 25 Most Underrated Games of All Time feature. What under-appreciated classics made the list? Well, titles like Zork Zero, Ico, and Sly Cooper all make the cut. This most recent countdown is a follow-up to GameSpy's 25 Most Overrated Games of All Time piece from a couple of weeks ago." Although the 'X Most X' series sometimes draws howls of derision, it does still pinpoint some interesting choices.

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this week, a new fan-made prequel to Sierra's Space Quest series, Space Quest 0: Replicated, was released. Designed by Jeff Stewart, Replicated features a hilarious story centered on cloning, retro graphics and interface, and tons of the wacky death scenes that made the SQ games famous in the first place. You can download Replicated at the Virtual Broomcloset." I adored Space Quest in my younger days... not sure if this will be worth it, but it brings a tear to my eye to see new AGI games being fan created ;)

Decaffeinated Jedi writes: "In a news item posted earlier today, GameSpot stated that they 'had learned from sources working on the project that Sierra is developing a new game in its classic Space Quest sci-fi adventure game series.' While GameSpot didn't give go into detail about the game, it looks like Roger Wilco is finally making a comeback! Check out Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset for all the latest developments."

Decaffeinated Jedi writes: "In a news item posted earlier today, GameSpot stated that they 'had learned from sources working on the project that Sierra is developing a new game in its classic Space Quest sci-fi adventure game series.' While GameSpot didn't give go into detail about the game, it looks like Roger Wilco is finally making a comeback! Check out Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset for all the latest developments."

cswiii writes "CNN has this article about scientists who have created bacteria that consume toxic wastes, such as radioactive materials, breaking them down into less harmful compounds. " Similar work has been done before with genetically engineering trees. I believe that bactera that eats oil has been actually used in oil spills before.

cswiii writes "In what some Slashdot readers might consider a breath of fresh air, a judge in San Francisco ruled that a patent on DNA replication and analysis was questionably obtained and thus, invalid. An appeal has already been promised by the defendants. " Whew. There's some form of sanity left in the world I guess. Reversing the Taq DNA Polyemerase patent is a pretty major deal for genetic research - it makes PCR much easier to perform.

cswiii writes "C|Net has this story about NCR suing Netscape over nine patents said to be infringed. " NCR is suing over nine patent infringements for "organizing and retrieving information from computer databases". We'll update this story as more details come out.

cswiii writes "Just ran across this website, the BOFHCam. A spoof on JenniCam, it's pretty accurate, as well as funny. " BOFH ^[?] is really funny, but this has to be one of the best parodies I've seen in a while. Definitely worth the time-poke around throughout the whole site.

cswiii writes "This c|net article talks about IBM, following the footsteps of Sun, to offer Linux support upon IBM's UNIX systems. " The most recent announcement from Sun, about LXRUN is quite similar. Essentially, both parties have modified their Unix flavors to enable AIX and Solaris to run Linux binaries.

cswiii writes "The Supreme Court has ruled that keeping obscene language out of email, in certain circumstances, does not violate freedom of speech. " Part of this law is a hold over from the CDA - in terms of what could and could not be sent. In this case, it's "obscence material". ApolloMedia, owners of annoy.com had originally the case against this. In this situation, the Court upheld the ruling of a CA District Court.

cswiii writes "This Quicken.com news brief states that Network Solutions, the "world leader in domain name registration" (guffaw) has reached the four-million domain milestone. You do the math. " The internet is really huge (todays wacky understatement) 26 alpha, 10 digits, some random punctuation. Wonder how long before we run out? We got IPV6, how about DNSv6. Can I have the .dot TLD?

cswiii sent us a link to a quick little news.com article which announces that MP3.com is going public some time this year. Wouldn't mind a piece of that pie.

cswiii writes "In case you've not heard, Apple's been putting legal pressure on two teens who registered "appleimac.com". This latest story mentions Apple's most recent action to date -- registering a copycat domain, that is actually an old domain that one of the kids used to own. " Who knew that apple was less mature than a couple of 16 year olds? Thats just to funny. Update: 02/25 05:58 by CT : as with most of the best jokes, this was a hoax. Funniest thing I've seen all day.

I-man writes "Extra extra! DOJ lawyer completely destroys the credibility of yet another Redmond Exec!" Wrap it up people. This is just getting to loony. I'm not sure which "Bill" related trial is more boring right now. They're both pretty darn funny though. Update: 02/23 02:24 by CT : cswiii sent us a nice link to a CNN story about a Six-week break trial. After which we'll finally get some closing.

Anonymous Coward writes "WindowMaker 0.50.0 is out, and includes full KDE support, as well as numerous improvements in usability and appearance as well as the usual bugfixes.
Following the announcement that Blackbox 0.50.2 included limited KDE support last month, this make 3 enhanced window managers available to KDE users. " Notably, Window Maker also includes GNOME support, at least where it can...

cswiii writes "As CNN reports in this story, a federal judge has ruled that a school violated the civil rights of a student by suspending him due to a webpage he made with disparaging remarks about the school. To think a school even asserted that power! Wish we could find the webpage... " Glad to see Uncle Sam get one right.