'We Messed Up'. Microsoft Rescinds Xbox Live Gold Price Hike
"We messed up today," the Xbox Live Gold team wrote late Friday night, "and you were right to let us know." Their blog post's new title? "No Changes to Xbox Live Gold Pricing, Free-to-Play Games to be Unlocked." Forbes reports: It has been a very strange few days for Microsoft and Xbox fans. On Friday, Microsoft announced that for effectively… Read More »
Posted on 24 January 2021 | 2:48 pmAnt Group Sponsors Reality Competition Show About Programmers
"A two-episode series which debuted on Chinese streaming platforms last week has been described as the first reality competition to focus on programmers," reports the I Programmer web site: The show, sponsored by the Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group, is called Ranshaoba tiancaichengxuyuan, which roughly translates to… Read More »
Posted on 24 January 2021 | 1:48 pmWhen Adobe Stopped Flash Content, It Also Stopped A Chinese Railroad
Jalopnik shares a story for our times: Adobe's Flash, the web browser plug-in that powered so very many crappy games, confusing interfaces, and animated icons of the early web like Homestar Runner is now finally gone, after a long, slow, protracted death. For most of us, this just means that some goofy webgame you searched for out of misplaced… Read More »
Posted on 24 January 2021 | 12:34 pmAsk Slashdot: Is There a Battery-Powered Wi-Fi Security Camera That Supports FTP/SMB?
After their house was vandalized, long-time Slashdot reader lsllll needs some help finding a battery-powered, wifi-enabled camera that can dump motion-detected videos to a local server: There are some nice cameras out there that'll work for nearly 5 months off a rechargeable battery. You can even pair them with a solar panel which would keep them… Read More »
Posted on 24 January 2021 | 11:34 amCan You Tell a Programming Language Inventor From a Serial Killer?
A new web quiz challenge visitors, "Can you tell a coder from a cannibal? A mathematician from a murderer? Try to spot who liked hacking away at corpses rather than computers." One commenter on BoingBoing says the quiz brought back memories of doing IT recruitment in the 1990s. "After a few months at that job,… Read More »
Posted on 24 January 2021 | 10:34 am'Babylon 5' Actress Mira Furlan Dies At 65
Slashdot reader The Grim Reefer shares a report from the BBC: Babylon 5 and Lost actress Mira Furlan has died at the age of 65, her family and management have confirmed. Furlan played Minbari Ambassador Delenn in the 1990s sci-fi TV drama, Babylon 5, and Danielle Rousseau in the noughties mystery drama, Lost. Her family told the BBC the… Read More »
Posted on 24 January 2021 | 9:34 am