Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Sega Dreamcast Turns 10

 
 

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via Slashdot by Soulskill on 9/9/09

traycerb writes "It's been 10 years since 9/9/1999, when the Dreamcast launched on American shores. The hardware was ahead of its time; online capability, web browser, a visual memory unit, and a controller that anticipated the much-loved Xbox 360 controller. The games were amazing: Jet Set Radio (the first popular 3d cell-shaded game on a console), Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (still the apotheosis of 2-d fighting; just try finding a copy on ebay), Soul Calibur (still looks good compared to the recent Xbox/PS3 versions), NFL 2K (came out of nowhere, and was so good that it shook EA into spending tens of millions of dollars to seal up exclusivity for NFL rights), and many others. No doubt some of the reasons for the Dreamcast's demise lay with Sega, whose dubious hardware decisions (ahem, 32x) finally caught up to them, in the form of ambivalence from both developers and gamers, just as the console-making world was shifting to the multinationals with big pockets who were willing to spend it on pricey hardware design (or could absorb the cost of faulty hardware design). It was also one of the first consoles widely used for homebrew. In honor of the 10th anniversary, a new game is being released for the Dreamcast, called Rush Rush Rally Racing. The Dreamcast is dead! Long live the Dreamcast!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


 
 

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Thursday, September 03, 2009

Worst Ad Concept Ever?

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by Uncle Dave on 9/3/09

UPDATE: The video got pulled from YouTube, but this article describes it.

I love the show Mad Men about a Madison Avenue ad agency in the early 60's. Things have changed so much in society it seems like you're watching what's happening on another planet. The insensitive idiots who thought up this ad must be from another galaxy.

Turns out that it wasn't the work of the World Wildlife Fund, but an ad agency who mocked it up. After presenting the concept and being summarily rejected by the activist group, the forsaken ad made its way online, thoroughly pissing off the WWF. They condemned the plane-raining creative and the loose-lipped agency that posted it, issuing the following statement:

"WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day."



 
 

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What Ever Happened To… Sketchpad, One of the First Graphics Programs

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by Uncle Dave on 9/3/09


Ivan Sutherland is a computer graphics pioneer who developed some of the first visually interactive concepts that eventually made their way into the Mac, then Windows, plus video games.



 
 

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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Singletary Announces Roster Moves

 
 

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via Goal Posts by Scott Kegley on 8/30/09


Head coach Mike Singletary spoke to the Bay Area media on Sunday following the 49ers 20-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys.   Singletary began his conference call by announcing five roster cuts in order to get the team down to 75 players on the roster.  The players who were release0de were kicker Alex Romero, cornerbacks Jahi Word-Daniels and Carlos Thomas, and wide receivers Chris Francies and Mark Bradford.

Singletary was asked several questions regarding his view on the game now that he's watched the game film.

"It starts with the quarterback situation.  I'm thankful that Shaun was able to come in after the week that he had," Singletary said. "Obviously he wasn't as sharp as we wanted him to be.  We're also missing Snyder and it will be nice to get Baas back as well… I thought the running game was decent.  It wasn't all bad, it just wasn't what it had been."

Reporters also asked about his evaluation of his team's pass rushing efforts in Dallas.

"Right now, we're not really game planning and we're just letting our guys go with their best rush," Singletary said. "It's something we have to have in order to be a successful defense.  As we get closer to the season, I look for more of those things to happen."

Singletary later complimented the play of rookie quarterback Nate Davis.

"Nate continues to do a decent job.  I think he's settling down and the game is slowing down for him just a bit.  Nate has done a good job finding guys and that's always good to see."

Lastly, Singletary was asked if the team would consider bringing in a new tackle to replace Marvel Smith, who retired prior to the Cowboys game.

"We continue to look at what we need in order to be successful on the offensive side of the ball.  If we need to get another guy, then we'll do that."

Singletary also announced that outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks has a left knee contusion that caused him to be limited in action against Dallas. Also, wide receiver Arnaz Battle suffered a shoulder contusion in the game and safety Michael Lewis suffered a concussion.


 
 

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The Horror: Undercover Video Shows Baby Chicks Being Ground Up Alive!

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by McCullough on 9/1/09

The Horror: Video Shows Baby Chicks Being Ground Up Alive!

 
 

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Smelly? On The Bus? It’s Jail For You!

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by Uncle Dave on 9/2/09

If it's good enough for buses, why not extend it to all public areas? Then maybe we can rid ourselves of those who go the other way and seemingly bathe in perfume. Or have bad breath. Or…

The [Honolulu] City Council is considering a bill that will make it illegal to "bring onto transit property odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system, whether such odors arise from one's person, clothes, articles, accompanying animal or any other source."

Councilman Rod Tam, a co-sponsor of the bill, explained why it is needed:

"As we become more inundated with people from all over the world, their way of taking care of their health is different. Some people, quite frankly, do not take a bath every day and therefore they may be offensive in terms of their odor."
[...]
"There's the whole issue about at what point does it become illegal," [Chairman Gary] Okino said, noting that city attorneys are researching the matter. "How smelly does a person have to be? Just to base things on smell, I just don't feel good about that."
[...]
If convicted, a person could be fined up to $500, spend up to six months in jail, or be both fined and jailed.



 
 

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GMail Experiences Serious Outage

 
 

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via Slashdot by timothy on 9/1/09

JacobSteelsmith was one of many readers to note an ongoing problem with Gmail: "As I type this, GMail is experiencing a major outage. The application status page says there is a problem with GMail affecting a majority of its users. It states a resolution is expected within the next 1.2 hours (no, not a typo on my part). However, email can still be accessed via POP or IMAP, but not, it appears, through an Android device such as the G1." It's also affecting corporate users: Reader David Lechnyr writes "We run a hosted Google Apps system and have been receiving 502 Server Error responses for the past hour. The unusual thing about this is that our Google phone support rep (which paid accounts get) indicated that this outage is also affecting Google employees as well, making it difficult to coordinate."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


 
 

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I don't have a clue

I'm so very tired. It's almost all the time now.