Random News not worthy of own thread

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Sun, 14. Apr 13, 04:51

Northern lights/aura borealis may be visible tonight due to solar flare.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-n ... 1/10107004

Not really news and not really worth another post. Apparently some airlines, hotels, car rental places keep tracking cookies to adjust your fares based on the number of times and frequency you visit their site.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 0041602933

Earth Ultimatum IV. · Post by **Earth Ultimatum IV.** » Sun, 14. Apr 13, 20:08

Slovakia here. Nothing happens. How always. Guh.

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Tue, 16. Apr 13, 17:40

researchers may have detected/found dark matter particles
http://www.universetoday.com/101464/res ... -particle/

powerful microbatteries
http://phys.org/news/2013-04-small-size ... eries.html
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/15 ... mes-faster

BugMeister · Post by **BugMeister** » Wed, 17. Apr 13, 04:20

love to hear spoken histories, from ordinary folk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6HWk5WAUo

Samuel Creshal · Post by **Samuel Creshal** » Wed, 17. Apr 13, 10:30

In unrelated news, some kangaroos have escaped into the wild.

Austria, Australia… who cares. Both have kangaroos now!

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Wed, 17. Apr 13, 12:29

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Wed, 17. Apr 13, 15:21

Tomb raider apparently lost money. Tomb raider reflections may be next tomb raider. Square enix is apparently losing money.
http://gamerant.com/square-enix-tomb-raider-sales-loss/

LG building waterless washing machine
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/17/lg-s ... -no-water/

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Thu, 18. Apr 13, 15:37

Edited: Bitcoin exchange BitFloor shuts down
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/42368 ... huts-doors

Samuel Creshal · Post by **Samuel Creshal** » Thu, 18. Apr 13, 16:01

burger1 wrote:bitcoin shuts down
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/42368 ... huts-doors

Just one exchange, and only a minor one.

You almost had me there, I was getting popcorn and everything…

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Thu, 25. Apr 13, 17:10

nasa launches 3 smart phones into orbit as test satellites.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sci ... ?track=rss

Private Asteroid-Mining Project Launching Tiny Satellites in 2014
http://www.space.com/20817-asteroid-min ... light.html

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Wed, 1. May 13, 19:40

Class Action Suit Claims "Aliens-Colonial Marines" Falsely Advertised

"We think the video game industry is no different than any other that deals with consumers," says the plaintiff's representative, Edelson LLC.

Sega and Gearbox have been targeted in a class action suit, taken up by legal firm Edelson LLC on behalf of Damion Perrine, alleging that Aliens: Colonial Marines was falsely advertised by showing demos which bore very little relation to the final product. The suit argues that, because of the press embargo that only lifted on the game's February 12th launch, those who bought early or pre-ordered would have had no idea that significant discrepancies between the demo and final game existed............

This might be deserving of its own thread. The reason is that if this suit is successful, game manufacturers will be held accountable for their marketing AND the features that they advertise for their games are going to have to work within a reasonable time frame. No more "This game has multiplayer!" pre-release statements followed by a game that doesn't have functional multiplayer... And, if it doesn't have that for several months, what then?

It could open up a whole new element of risk associated with quality control for the games industry. That could be a wonderful thing. But, it could also be a potentially destructive thing for some small devs who can't attract large funding due to the lack of a track-record. Who's going to want to fund a game by XYZ Studios, who hasn't released anything, if there's an element of financial risk if that studio releases a game that doesn't live up to its marketing hype? And, it's marketing hype that happens to attract potential investors...

T.S.Zatoichi · Post by **T.S.Zatoichi** » Thu, 2. May 13, 02:43

I think all it'll do is force the game makers to put a disclaimer in small letters on their trailers. Good games likely won't be affected in any way and bad games will be protected from future lawsuits over false advertising.

Just saw this on the news. Teen Hearing Loss Related to MP3 and iPod Listening

According to the Journal of Pediatrics, 12.5 percent of kids between the ages of 6 and 19 suffer from loss of hearing as a result of using ear phones turned to a high volume.

From what the news said it appears that the main culprit behind this are Ear Buds, they allow too much background noise to filter through, and kids just turn up the music louder to drown it out. Headphones don't have the same background noise problem, so if your kid asks for some headphones, get them.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Thu, 2. May 13, 08:40

T.S.Zatoichi wrote:...From what the news said it appears that the main culprit behind this are Ear Buds, they allow too much background noise to filter through, and kids just turn up the music louder to drown it out. Headphones don't have the same background noise problem, so if your kid asks for some headphones, get them.

You know, the funny thing is... the same sort of studies came out when I was growing up, concerning headphones.

The answer - Don't use devices that amplify loud noises and push them directly down the ear canal over a sustained period to eventually damage your hearing.

Samuel Creshal · Post by **Samuel Creshal** » Thu, 2. May 13, 09:41

Wasn't the iPod kinda disliked because it has a volume limit to prevent exactly that?

T.S.Zatoichi · Post by **T.S.Zatoichi** » Thu, 2. May 13, 10:04

Morkonan wrote:You know, the funny thing is... the same sort of studies came out when I was growing up, concerning headphones.

I think the difference here is that when you and I were growing up not that many kids had Earbuds stuck in their ears for long periods of time, now, most kids have at least an Mp3 player.

Like most kids, I spent a fair bit of time in my room or at a friends house with the music turned up too loud, but when our parents got home, the volume was quickly turned down to a 'reasonable' level. Most kids nowadays don't necessarily have to ever lower the volume and can spend more time outside the house listening to music at that same volume.

I just think it'll be interesting to see how many forty-somethings will be needing hearing aids twenty years from now.

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Fri, 3. May 13, 00:35

possible Tunguska meteor fragments found
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/51 ... iscovered/

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Fri, 3. May 13, 17:22

Robot flies developed.

Technically it's a robot insect the size of a fly, but since it does actually fly ...

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Fri, 3. May 13, 18:17

brucewarren wrote:Robot flies developed.

Technically it's a robot insect the size of a fly, but since it does actually fly ...

Unfortunately, it's going to be a fly with a very long extension cord until we either invent an efficient enough batter to power it or can somehow microwave it some juice to keep flying.

Edit - This just in: Lindsay Lohan skips out on her latest court-ordered rehab... When are they finally going to lock her up for awhile?

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Tue, 14. May 13, 05:50

square enix loses 134mUSD in 1st quarter. Most people are amazed.
http://tignews.blogspot.ca/2013/05/stat ... in-q1.html

take2 loses 31.2M over past fiscal year
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/13/take- ... -the-rise/

destiny armor images
http://www.gamespot.com/destiny/images/

Samuel Creshal · Post by **Samuel Creshal** » Fri, 24. May 13, 10:19

http://ooe.orf.at/news/stories/2585641/ "Car rammed kangaroo"

Austria, Australia, who cares. Not the kangaroos, apparently.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Random News not worthy of own thread