Free Republic

Valve’s Steam Deck is capable of being much more than a handheld game console. It doubles as a powerful Linux PC that could realistically be your daily driver. Because of that, some experienced PC gamers may feel completely out of their depth when booting into the Steam Deck’s desktop mode. ... And remember that Generation Z grew up without a basic understanding of filesystems and operating system folder structures. It’s not their fault. Everything is an app or Google search away now. They main their smartphones, not laptops. These users are asking very honest, very innocent questions. Don’t laugh. Don’t...

...two months after it first discovered an issue with some of the valves in the spacecraft’s service module, the company still doesn’t know with 100 percent certainty what caused 13 of those valves to remain shut when they should have been open... ...the company might even have to swap out the spacecraft’s service module for a new one... “We got very close to launch without having identified the valve problem,” said George Nield, a panel member who previously oversaw the Federal Aviation Administration’s office of commercial space transportation. “Are there any changes to hardware inspection, testing, vehicle processing or checkout...

The Steam video game store has changed its content policy to "allow everything", unless it is illegal or "straight up trolling". The shift comes after controversy surrounding games which many people considered were offensive. A school shooting simulation game was removed from the store last month. But now games publisher Valve, which owns Steam, said it was not up to the company to decide what should or should not be on sale. The new policy paves the way for pornographic games to be made available on the platform, including in virtual reality. It would make the Steam store the first...

This was brought about by an idea in an earlier thread this week discussing Valve and PC Gaming. I had no idea how many other Freepers had Steam. A cursory glance indicated no existing groups for Free Republic, so I decided to create one. Request an invite at: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FreeRepublicGamersMost of all, have fun, and stay true to the Constitution.

The Tech Report crew seems to think that SteamOS and Mantle could ruin PC gaming. I'm not sure how they came to that conclusion but I'm sure you guys will have plenty to say on the topic. Now, all of a sudden, next year's gaming landscape looks to be shaping up very differently. Instead of three major platforms based on a common hardware architecture, game developers will face two monolithic platforms and a fragmented one—the PC—that will have two starkly different operating systems and three different APIs—Direct3D, OpenGL, and Mantle.

SNIPPET: "I rarely attend trials, but this one is special. On July 24, 2013, the main hearing in the case of German businessman Rudolf M. and Iranian-Germans Gholamali K., Kianzad K., and Hamid Kh. opened at Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court. The defendants are charged with exporting 92 German-produced specialized valves for use in Iran’s Arak plutonium reactor and arranging the shipment of 856 nuclear-usable valves from India to Iran in 2010 and 2011. The reasons why the UN Security Council has ordered Iran to halt the construction of the Arak reactor are compelling. If this nuclear plant comes online in...

from the vacuums-don't-suck dept.williamw83 writes "Today, November 16, 2004 has been declared as the centennial of the birth of modern electronics by the American Vacuum Society. As the AIP Physics News Update reports, this marks 'British scientist John Ambrose Fleming's 1904 invention of the first practical electronic device. Known as the thermionic diode, this first simple vacuum tube, containing only two electrodes, could be used to convert an alternating current (AC) to a direct current (DC).' Today's celebration takes place as part of the AVS's 51st Annual Symposium & Exhibitionin Anaheim, CA. Being a guitar player myself, I've come to...