Customer Reviews: SimCity – Standard Edition

Posted on by

The hours upon hours since launch that I haven’t been able to log in, whether it be sitting in queues, or server busy messages, or just plain old not working screens, I’ve managed to do a heap of things that I never do when I’m locked in my man cave playing video games.

I’ve washed the dishes, the laundry, changed the oil in the car, mopped the floors, dusted, did a spot of gardening, greeted my children who I hadn’t really seen since Christmas, walked the dog, asked how my wife’s day has been and listened to the entire response, restocked the groceries and many more things! My family has never been happier that they’ve got a father and husband again.

In fact, I feel like Simcity has given me a new lease on life. This wouldn’t have been possible without the seemingly crazy decision to have constant online connections and server side save points even for single player.

So I can only thank EA and Maxis. Your failures have been my rewards. 5 stars!

via Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: SimCity – Standard Edition [Download].

I don’t ever recall a product launch that went this badly.  I’ve been playing Sim City since version 2 and was looking forward to this.  This needs to be filed under what were they thinking?!

Startup Creates Software to Give Companies an Edge Recruiting Tech Talent

Posted on by

Since launching in beta last March, Gild has profiled four million software developers and has 70 customers, from high-profile Silicon Valley startups such as Palantir Technologies and Box to large IT providers such as Salesforce and EMC.

via Startup Creates Software to Give Companies an Edge Recruiting Tech Talent | MIT Technology Review.

One of Gild’s biggest data sources is Github, a software developer collaboration site that hosts the most open-source code in the world. Github profiles are already replacing programmers’ résumés in many cases.

Mobile Grabs $813.6M in February Funding

Posted on by

TruPhone: This London-based company develops low cost voice-over-IP software. The company got $118 million in February from the Russian business tycoon Roman Abramovich, who is currently worth over $10 billion, according to Forbes.

via Light Reading – Mobile Grabs $813.6M in February Funding.

From: http://www.truphone.com/en-GB/Business/

Truphone is the mobile phone network specially designed for international businesses.

  •  Save between 30-90% on voice, text and data compared with major UK operators
  •  Enjoy price plans that cover usage in the UK, plus Europe, the US and Australia
  •  Experience business-class coverage in 220 countries
  • Multiple international numbers on a single handset

    • The Leading Open Source Data Center Automation and Configuration Management Tool

    Posted on by

    Puppet Labs’ IT automation software enables system administrators to deliver the operational agility and efficiency of cloud computing at enterprise-class service levels, scaling from handfuls of nodes on-premise to tens of thousands in the cloud. Puppet powers thousands of companies, including Twitter, Yelp, eBay, Zynga, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Google, Disney, Citrix, Oracle, and Viacom.

    via Puppet Labs: The Leading Open Source Data Center Automation and Configuration Management Tool | Puppet Labs.

    The City of Chicago is on Github

    Posted on by

    This means that projects like OpenStreetMaps will be able to add over 2GBs of Chicago data to their site. This also means that companies and Chicago startups who would like to leverage this data are able to as part of daily business.

    via The City of Chicago is on Github – The Changelog.

    I downloaded the crime data dataset that supposedly includes all reported crimes from 2001.  The CSV file was 1G in plain text.  They could have compressed it but it doesn’t matter.  It contained over 4 million records.  Now I have to figure out how to slice and dice this dataset and for what purpose I don’t quite know yet.

    Human Interaction Under Threat from NINA

    Posted on by

    Nina stands for Nuance Interactive Natural Assistant and was launched on the iOS and Android platforms last August, allowing businesses to integrate the sophisticated voice recognition and natural language engine into their apps.

    via Human Interaction Under Threat from NINA – the Virtual Assistant – IBTimes UK.

    This sounds like an interesting development offshoot from projects like IBM’s Watson (the computer that beat the best humans on Jeopardy).  Then there’s this.

    The days of human behind the counter or at the end of a telephone line at coming to an end. As voice recognition and natural language engines become ever more sophisticated, it may soon be hard to distinguish between an automated system and the real thing.

    I am not looking forward to this day.  Perhaps this is what HAL tried to warn us about in 2001 A Space Odyssey.  Very prescient indeed.

    Sharpening Endpoint Security

    Posted on by

    Endpoints are as hard to define as they are to protect. The term traditionally referred to desktops and laptops, but endpoints now encompass smartphones, tablets, point-of-sale machines, bar code scanners, multifunction printers and practically any other device that connects to the company network. Without a well-conceived strategy, keeping track of and securing these devices is difficult and frustrating.

    via Sharpening Endpoint Security – Dark Reading.

    Some IT shops buy cleverly marketed products that promise off-the-shelf endpoint security using anti-malware and sandboxing. In most cases, attackers can easily bypass those defenses

    Graphene’s Unique Properties Could Be Used to Make Better Photovoltaic Devices

    Posted on by

    Conventional materials that turn light into electricity, like silicon and gallium arsenide, generate a single electron for each photon absorbed. Since a photon contains more energy than one electron can carry, much of the energy contained in the incoming light is lost as heat. Now, new research reveals that when graphene absorbs a photon it generates multiple electrons capable of driving a current. This means that if graphene devices for converting light to electricity come to fruition, they could be more efficient than the devices commonly used today.

    via New Nature Physics Paper Shows That Graphene’s Unique Properties Could Be Used to Make Better Photovoltaic Devices | MIT Technology Review.