Byte Into It - 23 Apr 08

Keren's Links:

http://virtualworlds2008.com/

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/

http://www.starwreck.com/

http://xmedialab.com/

http://threeminds.organic.com/

MSN Music customers lose *all* their music the next time they buy a new PC - Boing Boing

People who bought music from the MSN music store have been royally hosed by Microsoft: as of August 31, if you buy a new computer, or refresh your hard-drive or upgrade your OS, you have to kiss all your music goodbye. Microsoft has shut down its DRM "license server" and left people who bought music -- instead of downloading it from a P2P site -- out in the cold. MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett sent out an e-mail this afternoon to customers, advising them to make any and all authorizations or deauthorizations before August 31. "As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," reads the e-mail seen by Ars. "You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."

BBC NEWS | Technology | Web 2.0 is set for spending boom

Forrester analysed seven Web 2.0 categories: blogs, mashups, podcasting, RSS, social networking, widgets and wikis. Of these, social networks will attract the greatest levels of investment but even then that will be dwarfed by the multi million dollar revenues the software industry commands.

Mr Young says "Advertising revenue has been hard to come by with even sites such as Facebook finding it hard to monetise their high volumes of traffic.

"Companies are now looking over their shoulder to the business market where even revenues of $50 (£25) per user per month are looking increasingly appealing"

He also points out that there will come a saturation point and investment will start to slow down as Web 2.0 applications become increasingly prevalent and absorbed into collaborative software packages.

Microsoft: IT vulnerabilities down, threats deadlier - Security - iTnews Australia

IT threats are continuing to rise, although the number of disclosed vulnerabilities tailed off in the last six months of 2007, according to new research from Microsoft launched at today's Infosecurity Europe event.

The firm's Security Intelligence Report uses data captured by Microsoft Windows Defender and the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) over the last six months.

The disclosure of new vulnerabilities dropped by 15 percent in the last six months of 2007, while the amount of malware removed from computers by the MSRT was 40 percent higher. Instances of trojan malware rocketed by 300 percent.

The number of potentially unwanted applications – such as spyware and adware – jumped by 67 percent to 129.5 million pieces.

Ubuntu clears path to enterprises - Linux & Open Source - iTnews Australia

Linux vendor Ubuntu has made two announcements pitching itself firmly in the direction of enterprise open-source computing.

The firm announced the availability of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (long term support) Server Edition, and LTS Desktop Edition, pledging that both would add to its operating systems' stability, security and reliability.

Both versions are available as free downloads from the Ubuntu web site, and will be boosted with either five, or three year support from the firm and its partner Canonical. "Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition is built for business", said Jane Silber, chief operating officer at Canonical, "LTS Desktop Edition is a very significant release as it will take Ubuntu squarely into the business environment."

The Ubuntu Desktop Edition has support from a number of commercial vendors, all of whom have pledged to distribute onto the platform. These include Adobe, Google, Real Networks and Skype

Google announces Sydney Developer Day event - Internet - iTnews Australia

Google Australia today extended an open invite to developers in Sydney to attend a day-long discussion about building Web applications and advancing the Web as a platform.

Scheduled to be held on 18 June, Google Developer Day will feature presentations from top Google engineers, including Lars Rasmussen, Ben Appleton, Mike Jones, Dmitri Abramov, David Day, and David Glazer.

Attendees also will receive a mix of hands-on advice for building Web applications, as well as opportunities to learn about emerging programming trends.

Sessions at the event will cover: AJAX and JavaScript technologies; APIs and Web tools; social applications of the Web; mobile devices and applications; and Google Maps.

Microsoft releases XP SP3 but gives no word on reprieve - Operating Systems - iTnews Australia

Windows XP Service Pack 3 has released to manufacturing (RTM),” wrote Chris Keroack, the service pack's release manager, in a message posted to a TechNet support forum. “Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.”

Some of the biggest additions to Windows XP SP3 include a range of features backported from Windows Vista, such as black hole router detection, Network Access Protection, and Windows Imaging Component. A full summary of the SP3 features and changes can be found at Microsoft’s XP SP3 download centre.

Existing XP Pro and Home users will have to wait until April 29 to be able to download the service pack directly from Microsoft Download Center

Scammers hook up over LinkedIn - Security - iTnews Australia

Social networks such as LinkedIn are being exploited by online fraudsters, experts warned today..

Security firm BitDefender said that LinkedIn users are receiving emails requesting invitations to be added to other users' social networks.

Users may be more inclined to believe the emails because they come through the official channels, and they also slip past spam filters.

The scammers have even set up a fake profile page on LinkedIn. However, once the connection is made, the scammers then groom the users to participate in an advance fee fund scam, more commonly known as the Nigerian 419 fraud.

"This new twist to the old 419 scheme is more dangerous as there is an increased chance for network users to fall for the scam since they use it to build up their businesses or careers and thus tend to grant it some implicit trust," said Bogdan Dumitru, chief technology officer at BitDefender.

Dumitru noted that many sites, such as LinkedIn, are not able to verify the identity of those who join.

BitDefender also said that other social networking sites are likely to be used by fraudsters for similar scams.

Ballmer admits Vista is 'a work in progress' - Operating Systems - iTnews Australia

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has told delegates at the software giant's Most Valuable Professionals Summit in Seattle that Windows Vista is "a work in progress" and that the company is trying to learn from its mistakes..

"I think we did a lot of things right, and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from," Ballmer told the assembled independent developers, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The five-year development cycle for Vista had been too long, according to Ballmer, and was not something that Microsoft would be repeating.

Second Life seen becoming mainstream - Internet - iTnews Australia

Virtual world Second Life has the potential to become mainstream once computers and connections catch up with the aspirations of its creators, its founder told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

Despite the fact that user growth is slowing as a wave of publicity subsides, Philip Rosedale believes activity will increase 100-fold as improvements in computers and Second Life's own systems make it easier and more fun to become a citizen.

"I estimate we're at 1 percent of total use in 5-10 years," said Rosedale, the chief executive of Linden Lab, which runs Second Life, comparing its trajectory to that of the World Wide Web, which entered the mainstream in the mid-1990s.

Second Life has established a niche following among fans patient enough to grapple with the technology, but many who dabbled when the hype surrounding the virtual world was at its peak were deterred by the time, effort and technology required.

Second Life has about 13 million registered citizens but only a hard core estimated to number several hundred thousand are thought to be regular visitors.

Women unhappy in the IT workplace - Jobs Centre - iTnews Australia

The majority of women working in IT are dissatisfied with their work/life balance, according to research released this week..

While employers claim to support flexible working, women often find the reality quite different.

Boffins promise 500,000GB iPod - Storage - iTnews Australia

A nanotechnology breakthrough at the University of Glasgow could pave the way for MP3 players with a storage capacity 150,000 times greater than today's top-of-the-range devices..

Researchers claim to have developed a molecule-sized switch which dramatically boosts storage capacity without the need to increase the physical size of players.

The technology could see 500,000GB crammed into a square inch microchip, allowing users to store hundreds of millions of video clips and music tracks on a single device, well in excess of the 40,000 songs on today's largest capacity players.

The breakthrough, undertaken with colleagues at Daresbury Laboratory in Warrington using a giant X-ray machine, could also transform storage on other consumer electronics, including DVD players.

Featured Download: Take and share screenshots and screencasts with Jing Project

Windows/Mac only: Freeware application Jing Project takes screenshots and screencasts, then provides a seamless method for saving and sharing your pics or video via the internet. You can invoke Jing via keyboard shortcut or the unobtrusive yellow half-orb that it adds to your desktop. Then select the area you want to capture, tell Jing whether you want a video or an image, and then let Jing do its work. When you've finished your capture, you can either save the results to your desktop or upload them to Screencast.com. If you upload, the URL of your screenshot or screencast will automatically be copied to your clipboard.

The biggest plus side to Jing—and the feature that could really help it catch on—is its ease of use; anyone can get up and running taking screencasts and screenshots with very little effort. Screenshots you take with Jing can be edited with text, arrows, and highlighting after you take the shot.

Digg - Guitar Hero To Become More Like Rock Band

Industry analyst Janco predicted it back in August and now an interview with Activison CEO Bobby Lotick over on Conde Nast Portfolio, confirms that new additions to the Guitar Hero franchise will indeed include additional instruments.

Digg - Uwe Boll asks Blizzard for WoW movie rights, Azeroth says no

Blizzard has essentially laughed the German director out of their offices, and certainly right out of Azeroth. "We will not sell the movie rights, not to you... especially not to you," was apparently Paul Sams reply, to which Azeroth was pronounced saved!

Digg - Wii Owners Do Not Want New Games

These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine. They don ’t buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation.

Digg - See how the Wii Lightsaber works

LucasArts has ahem, 'unleashed' the latest web documentary for Star Wars: Force Unleashed, showing just how you swing a Lightsaber with the Wii Remote (and stylus).

ThinkGeek :: Super Pii Pii Brothers (Thanks Richard)

As any good geek should know by now Japan has some of the wackiest and most unusual products anywhere. So when we were visiting Tokyo recently and saw lines of Japanese schoolgirls waiting to play an amazing new game for the Wii called Super Pii Pii Brothers we were only a little surprised. After all with games like WarioWare and Raving Rabbids the Wii is no stranger to crazy gameplay mechanics... but it was quite unusual to see the "strap-on" style accessory and peeing action that Pii Pii Brothers provides.

Byte Into It - 16 Apr 08

Australia plans counter-terrorism email checks - Security - iTnews Australia

Australian companies providing critical services to the economy will be allowed to intercept the emails and internet communications of their workers under new security counter-terrorism laws. The government's current Telecommunications Act, which expires in June 2009, only allows security agencies to monitor employees communications without consent. "I promise we are not interested in the email you send out about who did what at the Christmas party," Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Monday. "What this is about is looking at our critical infrastructure. If our banking system collapsed, if our electronic system collapsed, obviously that would have huge implications for society," Gillard told local television. "We want to make sure they are safe from terrorist attack." The planned new laws have concerned civil liberties groups.

Farewell CDMA: Conroy confirms closure - Telecommunications - iTnews Australia

It’s final. Telstra’s moribund CDMA mobile phone network will cease to be come April 28, after Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today confirmed that Telstra has met the requirements to allow its closure. Earlier this year, Conroy delayed the CDMA network’s January 28 closure after a report released by ACMA found insufficient equivalence between CDMA and Telstra’s Next G network. An online poll conducted by iTnews at the time of Conroy’s initial CDMA delay confirmed the Senator’s concerns. The poll, which attracted 737 respondents, found that 61 percent of voters thought Next G’s network coverage was worse than CDMA's. Twenty-five percent thought it was better, while 13 percent were indifferent. Since then, Telstra has implemented a number of the Senator’s recommendations in an effort to bring the Next G network up to scratch. These include establishing a hotline for users experiencing Next G handset problems and sending out teams of "Coverage Advocates" to visit customers in rural areas to help them make a smooth transition to the new network. “Once the shut-down of the CDMA network is complete, Telstra will be able to focus its resources and energy on improving and expanding the Next G network, providing high levels of customer service to Next G customers, and to help the small number of customers still holding CDMA equipment.” But before these initiatives cease, Telstra must report to Conroy so he can assess whether the level of demand warrants an extension of the programs he said..

Nokia launches new phone with electronic wallet - Mobility - iTnews Australia

Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, said on Tuesday it would start selling a new handset, the 6212 Classic, with integrated Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC allows users to share content by connecting two phones which can receive audio files and other downloads from service providers simultaneously. The phone can also be used for payments.

Internode expands naked ADSL2+ offering - Telecommunications - iTnews Australia

National broadband IP carrier Internode is set to expand its Naked ADSL2+ offering by converting existing phone services to naked ADSL. Naked ADSL2+ does not require a dial-tone enabled copper phone line, which means that customers can avoid paying for traditional line rental purely to support an Internet connection. While a naked line does not support traditional telephony functionality such as faxes and security alarms, Internode hopes their product will appeal to customers in apartments and those who do not wish to take time off work to allow technicians to connect wiring in their homes. Customers opting to go naked will still be able to make calls as Internode’s ADSL2+ broadband plan includes the NodePhone1 voice-over-broadband phone service.

BBC NEWS | Technology | BBC announces Nintendo Wii deal

The BBC's iPlayer video service will soon be available via the Nintendo Wii. The video download and streaming service that lets people catch up with BBC programmes will soon be a channel on the hugely popular game console. Early versions of the service will be available from 9 April but more polished software will be released as the service is developed. The BBC is still at loggerheads with internet service providers (ISPs) over who should pay for extra network costs.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | BBC new media boss to stand down

The BBC's head of future media and technology Ashley Highfield is leaving to launch an on-demand video service for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Known as Project Kangaroo, the joint venture has been described as "Freeview for the internet" and plans to offer more than 10,000 hours of programmes.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google tackles child pornography

Google engineers have adapted a software program to help track child sex predators and search for patterns in images of abuse on the web. Google has created the technology for the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). It was originally developed to block copyrighted videos on the company's YouTube division. The program uses pattern recognition to enable analysts to sort and identify files containing child sex abuse.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Nokia pushes '4G wireless' plans

Nokia, the world's largest handset manufacturer, has signed up Sony Ericsson, NEC and Alacatel-Lucent to its plans for a 4G wireless system. The companies have formed a licensing framework for their patents for the emerging mobile standard, called Long Term Evolution (LTE). The deal will add momentum to LTE, which is seen as a direct competitor to Wimax, which is being pushed by Intel. The first LTE networks are being rolled out in the US and China. LTE is a faster and more long distance wireless system compared to 3G.

Featured Mac Download: Run Apple TV on Your Mac with ATV4mac

Mac OS X Tiger only: ATV4mac runs Apple TV take 2 as a Mac application, bringing all the cool multimedia features of the Apple TV to your Mac. ATV4mac is a fairly young project, hence the unfortunate Tiger-only support at the moment, but it's already sporting most of the features available to Apple TV along with a few of its own. ATV4mac is freeware, Mac OS X Tiger only.

Feature: Free Ways to Synchronize Folders Between Computers

several free solutions can automatically sync folders between computers—even over the internet, through office firewalls—no matter what operating system you use. Whether you want work files edited at home to magically appear on your PC at the office, or the family room Mac to have a copy of the latest batch of digital photos downloaded onto the computer in the den, three free applications can help.

Feature: Trim Down Windows to the Bare Essentials

When you're installing Windows in a virtual machine or on old, slow hardware, you want the leanest, meanest and fastest-running configuration possible. Most of the time, you want the best from your operating system, including all the bells and whistles. Other times, you don't want the default, bloated Windows installation, with every single built-in feature slowing you down. Luckily, whether you want to put Windows on a diet in a virtual machine or you want to get Windows up and running all snappy-like on older hardware, you've got a handful of excellent and free options at your disposal.

Getting Things Done: How to Ditch Dedicated GTD Apps

Mac user Dennis Best says that using David Allen's Getting Things Done productivity system on your Mac doesn't mean you need to find the ultimate GTD application—that the tools you already have in Mail.app, iCal and Finder get the job done fine. After trying out shiny GTD-specific applications (like Things, which dazzled us too), he's settled on using those built-in tools instead.

Feature: Stitch Photos Into Panoramas with Free Software

Let's take a look at how to use the free, open source application Hugin to make two basic kinds of panoramas. What you'll need * A digital camera that embeds EXIF data in its pictures (that's basically all of them) * A copy of Hugin (available for Windows, Mac, and Linux). If you're on Windows or Linux, you should also grab a copy of the AutoPano tools; Mac OS X users should have AutoPano tools built in. Follow the instructions at the Hugin site to install your copy.

Featured Mac Download: Syncopation Syncs Up to Five iTunes Libraries

Mac OS X only: Shareware application Syncopation keeps your music, podcasts, and video in sync between up to five iTunes libraries. The app finds music that's in one library but not others, then transfers files between computers until everything matches. Syncopation is smart, too: it automatically replicates changes to a track's metadata in one library across your others. You can even set up block lists that keep, for example, your thrash metal out of your significant other's library. Syncopation is $25 for the full version, but you can download a demo version that works with two computers for 30 days—so if you just want to run one quick sync between two libraries, it's an excellent free solution. Either way, the Mac OS X-only Syncopation is a great tool, though it'd be great to see a completely freeware alternative.

Mac Tip: Get to More Than Definitions in Dictionary.app

in Dictionary.app (at least in Leopard), under to "Go" menu, there is an option labeled "Front/Back Matter." Clicking this brings up a whole slew of useful reference material, including a language guide (complete with a list of clichés to avoid), a list of the chemical elements

Digg - Apple says AirPort Disk use with Time Machine is unsupported

Okay, the Time Machine / AirPort Extreme situation is now officially ridiculous. TidBITS's Glenn Fleishmann is reporting that Apple's confirmed to him that the Extreme is unsupported for use with Time Machine, even though the latest batch of updates enable AirPort Disks to show up in the Time Machine disk-selection box.

Rumors rumble about unlocked 3G iPhones headed to Australia

MacTalk, the "Australian Macintosh Community," is featuring a post saying that Apple resellers in the country have been informed by Apple Australia that iPhones are headed the land down under. The alleged details are very interesting: the iPhone should be released at the end of June with no carrier lock-in, and Australia's network of Apple resellers will be able to sell them. While some are skeptical of the report, according to MacTalk member named "decryption," there are several plausible reasons why it could be true. The June timeframe coincides with the planned opening of Australia's first Apple Stores in Sydney and Melbourne this summer.

Psystar on Apple's EULA: No comment, but check out OpenPro!

Psystar, a Miami-based IT company, was offering a $399 PC called "OpenMac" that could allegedly run Leopard. Psystar will even install a fresh retail copy of Leopard for you—for $155 of course. Hey, Apple doesn't offer OEM pricing, you know. As news spread around the 'Net, Psystar's servers went down. While many wondered if it was due to threats from Apple's legal department, owner Rudy Pedraza told Ars this morning that it was just good, old-fashioned server overload. As of 9am CT this morning, Pedraza says that the website has been up and taking orders for 20 hours. Due to the high demand, orders are currently at a seven-day lead time. There are also two new significant changes in the product offering. One is that Psystar has changed the name from "OpenMac" to "Open Computer." Pedraza told us that this was also not due to any threats from Apple legal. "This is a proactive step we took on our own, to avoid any issues," he said.

Amazon MP3 store's gains not coming at iTunes' expense

Amazon MP3 has made quite a splash since it launched last September. Its wide selection of DRM-free content (the widest selection when it comes to the Big Four labels) and relative ease-of-use have made it a favorite among those who buy music online. It turns out, though, that Amazon's growth has not come at the expense of the iTunes Store, according to a new report by the NPD Group. The data shows that Amazon may be able to continue growing alongside iTunes, although the two will probably butt heads one day if they want to compete for the top spot among music retailers.

Apple IIgs laptop


http://benheck.com/04-14-2008/apple-iigs-original-hardware-laptop



Turn your iPod Touch into an iPhone


http://lifehacker.com/378511/turn-your-ipod-touch-into-an-iphone



Google Maps to insert YouTube vids


http://www.macworld.com/article/133002/2008/04/google_maps_youtube.html



OpenMac/Pystar - The return of Mac Clones.


http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/04/14/openmac_advertised_for_39999.html

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2008/04/apple_psystar



more hits against iTunes


http://www.macworld.com/article/133009/2008/04/tesco.html



Apple & Blu-Ray


http://macenstein.com/default/archives/1287



More v2 iPhone rumors


http://macenstein.com/default/archives/1288



Is AppleCare worth it?


http://forums.mactalk.com.au/20/47863-applecare-protection-plan-worth.html

Byte Into It - 9 Apr 08

Seagate hard drives in some mac laptops may be prone to failure

UK drive recovery company Retrodata is warning customers of a rash of failures involving a particular Seagate drive model, a SATA unit made in China and used in Apple laptops. This specific mechanism, according to Retrodata's intake notes, seems to be prone to a spectacular self-destruct where the drive heads auger into the platter, rendering the data mostly dead.

How to spot the potentially affected drive: check System Profiler under Serial ATA, and if you have a Seagate drive with a 7.01 firmware revision... well, double-check those backups.

USB malware on the rise - Security - iTnews Australia

Around a tenth of all malware is designed to use portable storage media, such as removable USB drives, as an attack and spread vector..

Security firm ESET said that 10.3 per cent of malware detections last month were identified as files containing information on programs to be run automatically when removable media are inserted into a computer.

ISO announces OOXML success - Software - iTnews Australia

The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has announced that Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format has received the necessary number of votes for approval as an ISO/IEC International Standard.

Subject to there being no formal appeals from ISO/IEC national bodies in the next two months, OOXML will proceed to publication as an international standard for word-processing documents, presentations and spreadsheets.

Conroy plans feedback forum for telecommunications policy - Telecommunications - iTnews Australia

Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is calling for participants to take part in a forum aimed at identifying ways to make consumer representation in telecommunications policy making more effective.

Scheduled to take place in Canberra on Thursday 1 May 2008, the forum will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss ways in which current consumer representation strategies can be improved.

Prominent stakeholders in the telecommunications market -- including consumer, carrier, disability, government and industry representatives -- have been invited to attend.

Windows XP gets two-year extension - Software - iTnews Australia

Microsoft is to extend the availability of Windows XP by two years..

But the extension will apply only to extremely specialised low-end PCs, and not to common consumer models.

A company spokesperson said that availability will be limited to PCs classified by Microsoft as "ultra-low cost" .

"We believe that Windows Vista is the best way to address customer and partner needs on mainstream PCs," said the spokesperson.

BBC hits out at iPlayer 'traffic shaping' - Internet - iTnews Australia

The BBC is threatening to name and shame ISPs that attempt to 'traffic shape' downloads from its increasingly popular iPlayer service..

Traffic shaping is a means of controlling the volume of users visiting a network at any one time.

ISPs have proposed using the procedure to cope with increased traffic levels caused by the popularity of the iPlayer. Visitors are now accessing a quarter of a million shows every day, according to the BBC.

IBM to build corporate Second Life - Internet - iTnews Australia

IBM is to team up with Linden Lab to develop an in-house version of Second Life for businesses..

The pair will begin work on a project to turn Second Life's grid platform into a product which will allow enterprises to build secure virtual worlds that can be deployed behind a firewall.

IBM hopes that the project will yield a secure version of Second Life that the company can run in-house.

Big Blue is demonstrating a sample of a Second Life grid running on one of its BladeCenter modules at the Virtual Worlds Conference in New York.

Microsoft Windows 7 two years away - Operating Systems - iTnews Australia

Despite ramping up efforts to improve Vista traction in the marketplace, Microsoft is already preparing for the release of its latest operating software – codename Windows 7 – following an announcement by Bill Gates.

At the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he expected Windows 7 to be released within the next two years, around three years after the launch of Vista.

Yahoo rebuffs Microsoft’s advances, again - Business - iTnews Australia

Yahoo has rejected yet another aggressive advance from Microsoft in which the software giant issued a three-week ultimatum: either accept a US$44.6 billion buyout offer or face an ugly proxy battle.

During the past weekend, Microsoft chief executive, Steve Ballmer, sent an open letter to Yahoo that warned that if the Internet search company failed to agree to its proposed financial terms within a three-week deadline, Microsoft would take its offer direct to shareholders and instigate a proxy contest to elect an alternative board of directors.

Google releases application development engine - Software - iTnews Australia

Google is previewing a new service aimed at web application developers. The preview release of the Google App Engine will let developers host, create and run applications as easily as they might create a blog, said the firm.

In his blog post, Kevin Gibbs, Google Tech Lead on the Google App Engine, said that the engine took the typical building blocks used by developers, and packaged them with a scalable infrastructure, meaning that developers could, "spend less time dealing with system administration and maintenance, and more time building and improving their applications."

The SDK gives access to Python application servers, GFS data store services, and Google's own scalable BigTable databases. As well as this, any apps developed using the tools will work seamlessly with Google apps, and developers have full access to the firms' APIs.

The preview version of the App engine is free, but limited to the first 10,000 people to sign up. Interested subscribers will need a Google log-in, such as that used with the Googlemail email service.

Vignette goes social - Internet - iTnews Australia

Vignette Community Services features ratings, reviews and tagging tools to enable users to make and review content, also present is functionality for administrators to analyse user-generated content (UGC), according to the firm's product marketing manager, Guy Westlake.

"A key point is that user-generated content has greater penetration for online buyers – it could help strengthen brands, drive revenue and by leveraging the knowledge and comments on products, it could feedback into development," he explained. "It could also increase loyalty, because a key battleground for e-commerce is getting your customers to stay online and interact with the site. "

Vignette Community Applications, meanwhile, gives firms the ability to add blogs, wikis, forums and other collaborative features to their sites, and can also be used on intranets to aid content discovery and knowledge management, said Westlake.

BBC NEWS | Business | Google executive poached by EMI

Record label EMI has appointed a senior executive from Google to run its digital strategy, the first time such a post has been created at the firm.

Douglas Merrill, who led Google's successful stock market listing in 2004, will take up his post on 28 April at EMI's Los Angeles office.

BBC - Newsbeat - Music - Radiohead offer Nude remix

Radiohead are giving fans the chance to remix Nude, the second single from their latest album, In Rainbows.

The band have split the track into five different parts - voice, guitar, bass, drums and strings. Users can also add their own instruments and effects.

Remixers are sent an access code to transfer the files into music production software like Garageband or Logic Pro.

Finished mixes can be uploaded to a new website - radioheadremix.com - where users vote for their favourite. The winner will be announced on 1 May.

If social networking isn't Mac-centric enough, try net4mac

Social networking has become de rigueur for many, with sites like MySpace and Facebook overtaking the original—and mostly forgotten—Friendster. LinkedIn is popular with business types. But does anyone even remember Orkut? Well, if none of these services quite do it for you, and you're a snob who only wants to network with other Mac users, you might want to take net4mac for a spin.

Rick Rolled to child porn = you're a pedophile, says FBI

be careful of what you click on and from whom. If that link points to anything even pretending to be child porn, that's enough evidence for the FBI of intent to download it. The authorities could then raid your home and possibly throw you in jail. No joke, it just takes one click and you're under intense suspicion.

Second Life lawsuit over purloined naughty bits settled

The not-nearly-as-sordid-as-you-might-think story goes like this. 19-year-old Robert Leatherwood allegedly stole scripts written by Florida-based Eros, LLC that gave people's avatars lifelike naughty bits and enabled them to engage in kinky, virtual sex. He then resold them without permission, which sparked a lawsuit from Eros founder Kevin Alderman over copyright violations last July. That was apparently when Leatherwood decided to stop selling the scripts, according to the Associated Press, and was likely part of the reason Eros decided to settle.

Pirate Bay on IFPI lawsuit: Labels can "go screw themselves"

The four main backers of The Pirate Bay could be personally on the hook for 15 million kroner ($2.5 million) after record labels requested the amount in damages from the Stockholm District Court yesterday. Gottfrid Warg of The Pirate Bay responded with the elegance that always characterizes the group's pronouncements, telling Sweden's The Local that "the record companies can go screw themselves."

A class of copyright thieves? A lawsuit over lecture notes

The suit pits a professor at the University of Florida, who has published course materials commercially, against one of the commercial note-taking services that exist to serve the needs of students at most large campuses. Back in the '90s, the University of Florida itself sued a similar service over the ownership of lecture materials; they lost. This time around, the ability of electronics to capture and transform lecture material may have changed the issues dramatically.The professor involved, Michael Moulton, teaches wildlife ecology and
conservation. A few years ago, starting with the notes that he used to
deliver his lectures, Moulton gradually built an electronic version of
a textbook. After getting the University to waive its copyright on the
material, he worked with a company called Faulkner Press to copyright
and formalize the material. That material is now available
as a $90 CD that includes audiovisual material, study guides, and
practice examine questions. It's apparently required material for any
students enrolled in Moulton's class.

Meanwhile, a company called Class Notes, doing business as
Einstein's Notes, was performing the typical service of collecting
notes and class materials, and selling them to students. In the
process, the suit alleges, they ran afoul of Moulton's copyrights;
Faulkner seeks an injunction against their distribution of course
material, plus fees and damages.

.

Labels seek billions in damages over Baidu MP3 deep-linking

A major copyright infringement case against Chinese search engine Baidu is moving forward, as Beijing's No.1 Intermediate People's Court has agreed to hear claims brought forward by three of the Big Four record labels. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry announced this morning that the three labels were seeking maximum damages of 500,000 yuan (roughly US$71,000) per track on at least 127 tracks, totaling 63,500,000 yuan (US$9 million) in damages. But that could just be the minimum, as the IFPI says Baidu may face damages in the billions.

Trademark lawsuit could put the squeeze on Google AdWords

Trademark law is designed to protect consumers by preventing companies from selling their products under false pretenses. The core issue of the Rescuecom case is whether choosing a competitor's trademark as an advertising keyword is likely to confuse consumers. Rescuecom has argued that Google profits from consumer confusion by obscuring the distinction between organic search results and paid advertising. Google, in contrast, compares its advertisements to a grocery store that stocks a generic product on a shelf alongside its brand-name competitor—a use that courts have consistently upheld as legal.

Blame games: bill says content makers liable for violence

A bill currently under consideration in the Arizona state legislature would impose liability on persons who produce or distribute "dangerous or obscene" content (including audio, video, interactive media, and even written content) that is found to be the material cause of a terrorist act or felony. The broadly-worded proposal, which is touted by its supporters as a tool for financially punishing makers of violent rape films, is viewed with serious concern by movie producers and video game developers who fear that it will be abused.

Flood of revelations in Vista-capable suit paused for appeal

It appears that Microsoft will get a brief reprieve from the flood of bad news pouring out of its "Vista Capable" lawsuit. Judge Marsha Pechman has put the entire case on hold while Microsoft challenges her ruling that the case be granted class-action status. Once the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals weighs in on that question, though, the case will resume and discovery will continue. If such discovery proves as revelatory as what has already emerged, Microsoft may well be thankful for a breather.

EU groups: data retention policies violate Rights Convention

A group of 43 European civil liberties groups today filed a brief with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg that argues for overturning a 2006 EU directive mandating data retention policies across EU countries. The groups assert that the directive is illegal, but more importantly that the directive interferes with basic human rights granted to all Europeans. Not only that, but they don't think data retention will make people safer, and on a continent with a history of surveillance states, potential abuses of power are always an issue.

Featured Windows Download: Reconfigure Windows with TweakNow

Windows utility TweakNow puts a friendly interface on the most common registry settings on your PC, complete with an Undo button. Tweak your Start menu, Control Panel, Desktop, user accounts, and other settings using TweakNow, which shields you from the decidedly not-fun and risky undertaking that is editing the registry by hand. This looks particularly useful for locking down a PC for the kids—for instance, you can use it to disable access to the Control Panel and desktop context menus. TweakNow is a free download for non-commercial use, Windows only.

Featured Windows Download: Temporarily Disable Flash in Internet Explorer with Toggle Flash

Once you've installed the toolbar button, a single click turns off Flash functionality in the background; click again, hit refresh, and the videos, animations, and other Flash elements return. It's small, it uses no background memory, and it just works. Toggle Flash is a free download for Windows systems and Internet Explorer 7 only; hit either link below for help getting the button to show up on your toolbar.

Byte Into It - 26 Mar 08

BBC NEWS | Technology | Embracing the torrent of online video

Internet law professor Michael Geist applauds the recent use of BitTorrent by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Moreover, the European Union recently joined forces with leading
broadcasters such as the BBC to launch P2P-Next, a new peer-to-peer
research project. The project, which involves an investment of tens of millions of
dollars, hopes to advance current P2P technologies to create the
"next-generation Internet television distribution system." While the CBC may succeed in paving a new path for content distribution
for broadcasters, it is also placing the spotlight yet again on the
contentious issue of network management practices. A growing number of internet service providers actively limit the
amount of bandwidth allocated for file swapping on BitTorrent. Those practices - known as traffic shaping - may leave users around the
world wondering why they are unable to swiftly download the CBC
content. In fact, critics point to the anti-competitive effects of ISPs
limiting access to new forms of video distribution, while actively
offering consumers competing video services..

Major update to Miro, the free/open Internet TV client - Boing Boing

Miro, the free/open Internet TV client, has just released a major update, going to 1.2. Miro combines BitTorrent (fast downloads), VLC (play any video format) and RSS (subscribe to video in "channels" and have new episodes downloaded directly to your desktop as they're published).The idea is to create an open platform for enjoying video online, one that isn't owned by any company, one that anyone can produce video for -- to make video open like the web, not owned by any company. Basically, to make a Firefox for Internet video.

SlySoft on Blu-ray BD+ crack: next time it will be easier

Last week, SlySoft announced that it had definitively cracked the extra layer of DRM that helped make Blu-ray more popular with the studios than HD DVD. The company announced in a post on its forum that the new version of AnyDVD HD (6.4.0.0) will allow users to make "backup security copies" of Blu-ray discs that use BD+. One issue facing SlySoft (and anyone else that manages to crack BD+) is that the encryption keys and scheme can be modified in the case of a successful crack. That's no worry, as van Heuen told Ars that "cracking updates will take significantly less time than the basic work we did the last three months—which was figuring out how BD+ works, since it is not documented in public."Although the BD+ scheme is designed to be dynamically updated, van Heuen isn't worried. Noting that the entire BD+ scheme is "not economical to be done even once," he wryly points out that "the customer pays the additional cost." There are some "attacks" against SlySoft's crack that the BDA could roll out, but Slysoft is prepared to address them, van Heuen added.

TiVo takes a break while cable giants do the heavy lifting

DVR pioneer TiVo is shifting its business model into a new gear. In a few years, you might not even recognize the company anymore. If you like the TiVo way of presenting content, then this is all good news.Comcast has started to roll out software updates to New England customers, turning their Motorola set-top boxes into nearly full-fledged TiVo machines. Cox is planning to follow suit in its Rhode Island and Connecticut coverage areas, and is currently running through technical trials. TiVo is busy talking to other cable operators around the country, and the new distribution channels should make the DirecTV defection a distant memory soon enough.

As the cable providers start to shoulder the costs of promoting the TiVo service to their own customers, TiVo is scaling down the marketing spend and pocketing the difference. The company would no doubt love to become a pure-bred software licensor that simply works on the user interface and lets its partners worry about the underlying hardware. Notwithstanding the early success of the generation 2.5 TiVo HD box, it looks like the company is already heading in that direction.

Dropping 22TB of patches on 6,500 PCs in 4 hours: BitTorrent

Apparently, software updates are getting so big these days that simply downloading them from a server is becoming prohibitively time consuming, especially when the same updates need to be applied to many different machines. A Dutch university has some 6,500 desktop PCs in ten locations, which on occasion need to download 3.5GB worth of different types of updates. That's a handsome 22.2TB in total. In a traditional client-server world, that's some modest lifting.In fact, INHOLLAND University's IT department used to have almost two dozen servers distributed over the university's locations to serve up these downloads. The school was able to retire 20 of them after adopting a new way to distribute updates: BitTorrent.

Slashdot | China Unblocks the BBC (In English)

China has unblocked the BBC Web site — the English-language version at any rate. No announcement was made, because China has never acknowledged blocking the BBC for the last decade. The Chinese-language version of the site has been blocked since its inception in 1999.

OpenSocial Foundation launches with Google, Yahoo, MySpace

Google's OpenSocial platform for providing social network application development standards got significant new support today. Between Yahoo joining the fold and the creation of an official new foundation to oversee the evolution of OpenSocial, Google is looking to solidify the platform's future, providing a clear sense of direction and a forum for community interaction and resources.On a conference call today, representatives from Google, Yahoo, and MySpace outlined the initial plans for the OpenSocial Foundation, a new nonprofit organization whose purpose is to organize the various aspects of the platform. With an early framework already in place at OpenSocial.org, the foundation will primarily serve as a resource hub and communication portal for the developer community. According to Google's statistics, OpenSocial applications are already
used by over 200 million users across participating social networks
like Engage.com, Friendster, LinkedIn, Six Apart, and more. Next
Tuesday, hi5 will be joining the fold, and the OpenSocial Foundation
itself should be up and running within the next 90 days.

Safari 3.1 on Windows: a true competitor arrives (seriously)

Safari 3.1 is the first non-beta release of Safari for Windows. Along with the Mac version, 3.1 brings support for CSS Web fonts and animations, and it improves existing support for SVG and HTML 5. There are also a handful of performance and stability improvements rolled into the release.

Tracking Linux prereleases: OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, and Fedora: Page 1

Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE—three of the most prominent desktop Linux distributions.

Evidence mounting: Windows 7 going modular, subscription

When Windows 7 launches sometime after the start of 2010, the desktop OS will be Microsoft's most "modular" yet. Having never really been comfortable with the idea of a single, monolithic desktop OS offering, Microsoft has offered multiple desktop OSes in the marketplace ever since the days of Windows NT 3.1, with completely different code bases until they were unified in Windows 2000. Unification isn't necessarily a good thing, however; Windows Vista is a sprawling, complex OS.A singular yet highly modular OS could give Microsoft the best of all possible worlds: OSes that can be highly customized for deployment but developed monolithically. One modular OS to rule them all, let's say.

Mary Jo Foley is wagering that one of the big changes coming with Windows 7 is that it might be "available in pieces." That is to say, Windows 7 could be a modular OS. I'll go further. Windows 7 will be a modular OS, and we can already see the clues in Windows Vista, because it, too, is a fledgling modular OS.

Windows XP: Going, going ... gone?

So will there be any way to get a copy of XP after June 30? If you want to continue using XP, what problems will you face? If you buy a PC with Vista installed and decide you want XP instead, what are your options?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google backs 'white space' wi-fi

Google is pressing the US government to allow the unlicensed frequencies of TV "white space" to be used for wi-fi.The firm has written an open letter to regulators saying the US spectrum was a "once in a lifetime opportunity".

White space is unused blocks of frequencies in-between channels broadcast on analogue airwaves.

Digg - Do you hear the diference between a 128 and 320 kbps mp3?

Test yourself!

Featured Windows Download: Add YouTube and Flickr to Windows Media Center with Yougle

Windows Media Center plug-in Yougle integrates community video from the likes of YouTube and community images from sites like Flickr and ICanHasCheezburger with Windows Media Center. Once installed, Yougle provides access to all of those wonderful videos, pictures, and even audio from the comfort of your couch. If this looks familiar, the plug-in is a Vista version of a previously mentioned and no-longer-developed Windows MCE plug-in. Yet another great plug-in for making your Media Center life better. Yougle if freeware, Windows Vista only, requires a registration at the download site.

Featured Windows Download: Add Hidden File Showing, Other Right-Click Tools with Shell Tools

Free shell extension utility Shell Tools adds a few rare-but-good abilities to your right-click menu, including a means of toggling hidden file showing that's a lot more convenient than digging through each folder's toolbar menus to find the switch. In addition, the configurable extension tool lets you copy file names instead of files, create (hidden) note files on any file, grab URLs or site names from Internet Explorer bookmarks, and install or load fonts for a single session from the Explorer shell. I'm keeping it installed for the hidden file feature alone, but those who do a lot of file-swapping might find a good use for the notes feature, at the least. Shell Tools is a free download for Windows systems only

Featured Windows Download: Keep Real-Time File Snapshots with DocShield

Windows only: Free snapshot backup utility DocShield provides a similar service to previously-mentioned FileHamster, but with a lot more control over how often, and how big, those backups should be. Select individual files or groups of certain file types (like .jpg or .xls in the My Documents folder, for instance) on your home computer, networked systems, or even remote FTP servers, set DocShield to check at certain increments, and choose whether those backups are compressed or not. Better still, the program offers a utility to save a file and its versions onto a USB drvie, along with a utility to read and re-save it. For those looking for a Time-Machine-like utility for Windows but don't need entire systems backed up, DocShield is a helpful tool. DocShield is a free download for Windows systems only.

TripIt | Organize your travel

# Organize trip details into one master online itinerary -- even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites # Automatically include maps, directions and weather in their master itinerary

Digsby = IM + Email + Social Networks

One combined buddy list for all your AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber Accounts. Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby. Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook or MySpace account .

FriendFeed - About Us

FriendFeed enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing.

Byte Into It - 19 Mar 08

First Look: LimeWire Music Store beta short on selection

The first thing to note about the LimeWire Store is that it is currently web-only. The company expects eventual integration with its open source P2P desktop client, but no specific timeline for that feature has been announced yet. For now, users can browse through LimeWire's selection of DRM-free tracks and albums online and listen to 30-second previews in the browser window. The company says that there are currently 500,000 MP3s available for purchase, which are almost entirely from independent labels and artists. Given LimeWire's protracted legal fight with the record labels, a full inventory of music from the Big Four labels may be a long ways off.

Indie labels bypass iTunes, give digital sales a shot

Bands have always sold CDs at concerts, and nearly every indie label has some sort of online storefront these days (see, for instance, Fall, Suicide Squeeze, and Rough Trade). What's more recent is the trend toward offering digital distribution, often in fan-friendly formats like MP3 and FLAC. Reuters has a piece this weekend on three indie labels (Merge, Def Jux, and Sub Pop) that are examples of the trend, and it points out the obvious problem that such sites face: most music lovers will never visit a label-specific store. But in the digital, long-tail era, such stores can succeed by targeting a niche fan base with exclusives, rarities, and out-of-print material. They can also cater to online buyers concerned about audio fidelity by offering lossless versions of tunes, something that the major stores don't even make available.

Firefox 3 goes on a diet, eats less memory than IE and Opera

The upcoming Firefox 3 release has much to offer in addition to a smaller memory footprint, including an improved user interface, new themes that increase visual platform integration, a completely revamped bookmark and history system that uses an SQLite database, a Cairo-based rendering backend, full-page zoom, support for JavaScript 1.8, and many other new features. These improvements will likely continue to push Firefox's climbing market share.

CBC to release TV broadcast as high-quality, no-DRM BitTorrent download - Boing Boing

Sources indicate that the CBC is set to become the first major North American broadcaster to freely release one of its programs without DRM using BitTorrent. This Sunday, CBC will air Canada Next Great Prime Minister. The following day, it plans to freely release a high-resolution version via peer-to-peer networks without any DRM restrictions. This development is important not only because it shows that Canada's public broadcaster is increasingly willing to experiment with alternative forms of distribution, but also because it may help crystallize the net neutrality issue in Canada.

Microsoft eyes iPhone with Adobe Flash smartphone deal

Adobe today announced that Microsoft has licensed Flash Lite and Reader LE for the Windows Mobile OS. Microsoft will make these products available to all Windows Mobile OEMs around the world, firing a shot across the bow of the S.S. iPhone. Flash Lite has been available as a manual download for Windows Mobile for some time, but Microsoft is clearly looking to reenergize its mobile OS market share and kill the iPhone's growing momentum. Flash support could be a point of differentiation for Microsoft, after Steve Jobs panned Flash Lite as "not capable of being used with the web" at a recent shareholder's meeting. Microsoft is looking to fill the void left by the iPhone's "just the Internet" Safari browser, which has been criticized for its lack of Flash support.

Ohio seizes voting machines in criminal investigation

At the request of election officials, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation has seized voting machines for forensic analysis and has launched a criminal investigation into the Franklin County Board of Elections. The investigation was launched after Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's Secretary of State and chief election official, found that a candidate's name was marked as withdrawn on the electronic voting machine that she used during the recent primaries, an irregularity that was also reported by voters in other precincts. The state attorney general is now working with a team of computer forensic consultants to determine if there was any tampering. Preliminary analysis conducted by specialists from SysTest Labs indicates that the internal audit capability of the Franklin County voting machines had been manually disabled by county election board programmers last year, making it almost impossible to tell if any nefarious changes have been made to the systems. SysTest also discovered that the election board had failed to adhere to routine machine testing standards and had tested only one machine in each precinct rather than all of the machines.

Yahoo offers peek into crystal ball to justify bigger payday

The fact they're taking this very public and very defiant stand right now is a good sign that the company is confident about where it stands, and it's enough to send the stock more than 5 percent higher today—comfortably ahead of the general market or its biggest rivals. The lack of interest from would-be rescuers like News Corp. or Time Warner's AOL suggests that Microsoft will eventually get Yahoo's hand in marriage. But the company seems to be firing on most of its cylinders right now, and is walking the talk. Redmond will probably need to up its dowry a bit before it gets to consummate the deal.

Microsoft hits milestone with long-awaited Vista SP1 release

After many rumors as to when Windows Vista would get its much-anticipated first service pack looked improbable, Microsoft has finally dropped SP1 on the masses. SP1 rolls together 23 security updates and 550 hotfixes into a 434.5MB download (726.5MB for the 64-bit version). Apart from improvements brought by individual updates that are now part of SP1, changes that SP1 brings by itself to Microsoft's flagship OS are numerous. Significant changes include: * File copying should no longer have an ETA of hundreds of years * UAC has been altered slightly, including fewer prompts in specific scenarios * DirectX has been updated to support not only DirectX 9 and 10 hardware, but the backwards-compatible 10.1 as well * WGA has been tweaked to address two of the most popular exploits * Further support has been added for third party search solutions

Israel rebukes US: Our copyright laws are fine, thanks

Israel wants the US government to know that it won't implement laws banning the circumvention of DRM and it won't rewrite its ISP safe harbor rules; furthermore, neither of these issues should have any effect on trade relations between the two countries. The Israeli filing (PDF) made to the US Trade Representative comes a month after the International Intellectual Property Alliance called out numerous countries around the world for not living up to the IIPA's vision of the ideal copyright enforcement regime. Canada came in for a thorough trouncing, and Israel was also subject to criticism that it wasn't doing enough on copyright.

Childhood's end: Arthur C. Clarke passes away at age 90

Arthur C. Clarke is perhaps best known outside science fiction for his three laws of prediction. The laws state: 1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. 2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. 3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Casual games make a serious impact

When it first appeared in 2001 the game was known as Diamond Mine but is best known as Bejeweled. Since then creator Popcap has sold more than 10 million copies of Bejeweled and the game has been downloaded more than 150 million times. In technical terms Bejeweled is known as a casual game because it can be played for a few minutes rather than for the hours that games such as World of Warcraft demand. James Gwertzman, director of business development at Popcap, said just because Bejeweled and its ilk can be played for a few minutes at a time doesn't mean they are without merit. "There's nothing necessarily casual about playing them," he said. Popcap estimates that players rack up 600 million hours playing its online games every year. Importantly for the gaming industry the people raking up these hours are not traditional gamers. "Popcap players are 65% female and 70% of them are over the age of 30," said Mr Gwertzman. "It's a demographic that's been completely and utterly written off as gamers."

Wii locks comprehensively broken! - Boing Boing

The locks on the Nintendo Wii have been comprehensively broken. Now, just by loading some code onto an SD card and sticking it into your Wii, you can unlock your console so that it will play homebrew games written by anyone, not just big companies that have paid big license fees to Nintendo!

Digg - Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360

Microsoft Corp is not in talks to include Sony Corp's Blu-ray high-definition DVD technology in its Xbox 360 video game console, an executive said on Wednesday.

Digg - Why Microsoft should be worried about new NPD sales figures

Sony's PlayStation 3 has surpassed the Xbox 360 in sales for the second straight month. Microsoft has to be concerned about the PS3's growing momentum as well as its own supply constraints.

Digg - 10 reasons PlayStation 3 is still relevant

Blu-ray wins, Metal Gear Solid 4 gets dated, and 8 other reasons the PS3 is relevant again.

Five videogame characters who suck at their jobs. Destructoid offers reviews, previews, trailers, cheats, and more.

In general, our videogame protagonists need a set context for their lives before being thrust into action and adventure. Mario can't just be a dude with a goomba-stomping fetish; he has to be a plumber...Leisure Suit Larry - "loser" Max Payne – "Detective" Donkey Kong – "Donkey" Mario – "Plumber Samus Aran – "Bounty Hunter".

Build your own quad SLI: NVIDIA launches the 9800 GX2

NVIDIA's 9800 GX2 is, as the name indicates, a dual-GPU card. Unlike ATI's 3870 X2, the 9800 GX2 is built on two printed circuit boards (PCBs) with a single cooling structure in between the two cores. Both companies claim that their respective choice of single-PCB or dual-PCB is the best option for a variety of reasons, though NVIDIA also spent time explaining how this unified cooling system is far more effective than that of the ill-fated 7950 GX2. The card itself is 10.5" long and dual-slot, both of which are standard for high-end cards today.

One thing to also note from the above picture is the native HDMI output slot. That's a new feature for NVIDIA, as is the fact that the card is now capable of carrying video and audio over a single HDMI connection.

Digg - Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: one million preorders in Europe

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is looking to take Europe by storm as the Blu-ray version of the game has already toppled the million mark in the territory.

Digg - What will be the “Big” Nintendo announcement at E3?

Nintendo U.S president Reggie Fils-Aime has teased the audience of GameTrailers TV with a promised “Big” announcement around Nintendo’s second half of 2008 line-up. The bomb is set to drop at the upcoming E3 event.

Digg - Lego Team Fortess 2

Two of the greatest things in the world finally meet.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Embracing the torrent of online video