Software news, comment and analysis

Chinese Hummer deal

2009-06-04T17:54:00.001-07:00

General Motors (GM) has named the outfit that is to acquire its Hummer brand of vehicles, along with the division's senior management and operational team.

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery (Tengzhong), a major industrial machinery group, will acquire the rights to the brand and assume existing dealership network agreements.

It is contemplated that Tengzhong will, as part of the transaction, enter into a long-term contract assembly and key component and material supply agreement with GM.

In an earlier statement, GM said it expects the deal, if successful, to secure more than 3,000 US jobs.

The final terms of the deal are subject to final negotiations.

Based in the Chinese province of Sichuan, Tengzhong is a privately owned company and a domestic manufacturer of road, construction and energy industry equipment.

'We will be investing in the Hummer brand and its research and development capabilities, which will allow Hummer to better meet demand for new products such as more fuel-efficient vehicles in the US,' said Yang Yi,chief executiveofficerof Tengzhong.

Hummer will continue to maintain its headquarters and operations in the US, and will continue to be managed by its existing leadership team.

The team intends to expand Hummer's dealer network worldwide, particularly into new and underserved markets such as China.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Cloud computing: Resistance is futile

2009-04-30T21:05:00.005-07:00

There may be a number of unresolved security issues around cloud computing but if you try to resist the trend you are likely to be shown the door.

This was the claim of Philippe Courtot, chairman of security company Qualys, speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week.

"We know that it's getting harder and harder to secure the current computing infrastructure and something has to change. Fundamentally there are too many variables and too many security patches," he said.

Read more: RSA Security Conference

"The burden today is on the enterprise: they have to select the components, the servers, the routers and the applications, and to add insult to injury they have to secure that."

According to Courtot, the burden of security on organizations is too great, and the cloud is potentially the answer.

Proponents of cloud computing often point to the ability it gives businesses to buy services themselves, bypassing the IT organization. Courtot warned: "If you resist the move to the cloud you will be replaced. Resistance is not an option."

However, he still sees a role for the internal IT security team: "The security people will have a more strategic role because they will be selecting the correct partners," he said.

The complexity of combining cloud applications with traditionally sourced applications will also secure an important role for IT teams, at least in the short term.

Chief information officers, however, remain sceptical of cloud computing, and recent research by silicon.com saw it branded this year's most overhyped technology.

According to Courtot, a number of improvements are needed before cloud computing will be able to take off, including the development of more secure browsers, stronger authentication and federated ID in the cloud, secure open protocols and standards, and legal and contractual improvements.

This article was originally published on silicon.com.

Cloud computing: Resistance is futile

2009-04-30T21:05:00.003-07:00

There may be a number of unresolved security issues around cloud computing but if you try to resist the trend you are likely to be shown the door.

This was the claim of Philippe Courtot, chairman of security company Qualys, speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week.

Read more: RSA Security Conference

"The burden today is on the enterprise: they have to select the components, the servers, the routers and the applications, and to add insult to injury they have to secure that."

According to Courtot, the burden of security on organizations is too great, and the cloud is potentially the answer.

However, he still sees a role for the internal IT security team: "The security people will have a more strategic role because they will be selecting the correct partners," he said.

The complexity of combining cloud applications with traditionally sourced applications will also secure an important role for IT teams, at least in the short term.

Chief information officers, however, remain sceptical of cloud computing, and recent research by silicon.com saw it branded this year's most overhyped technology.

This article was originally published on silicon.com.

CPV solar farm

2009-04-30T21:05:00.001-07:00

ZenithSolar, an Israeli start-up company, has recently launched its first 'solar farm' near Tel Aviv, based on concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems developed by Prof David Faiman of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

Faiman, who is chairman of the Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics at BGU's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, believes that the system will harvest more than 70 per cent of incoming solar energy (as compared to industry norms of between 10 per centand 40 per cent).

The concept of CPV systems is to use low-cost optics to increase the light incident ontohigh-efficiency semiconductor solar cells, thus reducing overall cost of the system while increasing energy output.

The ZenithSolar optical dish is based on a patented design, using multiple simple flat mirrors mounted on a plastic surface. The moulded plastic surface, divided into four quadrants, is fixed onto a rigid, high-precision metal frame assembled onto an azimuth elevation solar tracking system.

The concentrated solar radiation is reflected from each individual mirror onto an array of solar cells. ZenithSolar uses field-proven high-efficiency multi-junction III-V solar cells for the job.

In conventional CPV systems, the excess heat generated in the solar cell needs to be removed to avoid damaging the cell and to maintain high efficiency of electricity conversion.

By contrast, ZenithSolar uses the heat generated at the solar-cell receiver to provide usable hot-water heating, improving overall solar power conversion efficiency.

'By concentrating solar energy to a level 1,000 times more intense than natural sunlight and taking advantage of the higher efficiencies at which solar cells operate under these conditions, only minute amounts of expensive PV material are necessary to produce large amounts of power,' said Faiman.

Report: Conficker in attack mode

2009-04-30T14:56:00.001-07:00

The Conficker threat has a new twist, with the worm now reportedly installing a second mass-mailing virus that many know as Waledac.

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, Conficker-infected machines are now being turned into servers for e-mail spam. Quoting Vincent Weafer, vice president of Symantec Security Response, Xinhua reported Conficker now installs a second virus--Waledac--that sends out e-mail spam without the computer owner's knowledge.

Read also: Conficker's estimated economic cost? $9.1 billion

"Expect this to be long-term, slowly changing," Weafer was quoted as saying of the Conficker impact. "It's not going to be fast [or] aggressive."

According to security vendor Trend Micro, the worm also installs malware that masquerades as antivirus software.

Earlier this month, Trend Micro's advanced threats researcher Paul Ferguson, said Conficker and Waledac originated from the same authors. Waledac has been referred to by some experts as a new version of Storm, a mass-mailing worm that surfaced in early 2007.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet Asia.

CPV solar farm

2009-04-30T14:55:00.005-07:00

The concentrated solar radiation is reflected from each individual mirror onto an array of solar cells. ZenithSolar uses field-proven high-efficiency multi-junction III-V solar cells for the job.

In conventional CPV systems, the excess heat generated in the solar cell needs to be removed to avoid damaging the cell and to maintain high efficiency of electricity conversion.

By contrast, ZenithSolar uses the heat generated at the solar-cell receiver to provide usable hot-water heating, improving overall solar power conversion efficiency.

Cloud computing: Resistance is futile

2009-04-30T14:55:00.003-07:00

There may be a number of unresolved security issues around cloud computing but if you try to resist the trend you are likely to be shown the door.

This was the claim of Philippe Courtot, chairman of security company Qualys, speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week.

Read more: RSA Security Conference

"The burden today is on the enterprise: they have to select the components, the servers, the routers and the applications, and to add insult to injury they have to secure that."

According to Courtot, the burden of security on organizations is too great, and the cloud is potentially the answer.

However, he still sees a role for the internal IT security team: "The security people will have a more strategic role because they will be selecting the correct partners," he said.

The complexity of combining cloud applications with traditionally sourced applications will also secure an important role for IT teams, at least in the short term.

Chief information officers, however, remain sceptical of cloud computing, and recent research by silicon.com saw it branded this year's most overhyped technology.

This article was originally published on silicon.com.

Cloud computing: Resistance is futile

2009-04-30T14:55:00.001-07:00

There may be a number of unresolved security issues around cloud computing but if you try to resist the trend you are likely to be shown the door.

This was the claim of Philippe Courtot, chairman of security company Qualys, speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week.

Read more: RSA Security Conference

"The burden today is on the enterprise: they have to select the components, the servers, the routers and the applications, and to add insult to injury they have to secure that."

According to Courtot, the burden of security on organizations is too great, and the cloud is potentially the answer.

However, he still sees a role for the internal IT security team: "The security people will have a more strategic role because they will be selecting the correct partners," he said.

The complexity of combining cloud applications with traditionally sourced applications will also secure an important role for IT teams, at least in the short term.

Chief information officers, however, remain sceptical of cloud computing, and recent research by silicon.com saw it branded this year's most overhyped technology.

This article was originally published on silicon.com.

Report: Conficker in attack mode

2009-04-30T12:14:00.001-07:00

The Conficker threat has a new twist, with the worm now reportedly installing a second mass-mailing virus that many know as Waledac.

Read also: Conficker's estimated economic cost? $9.1 billion

"Expect this to be long-term, slowly changing," Weafer was quoted as saying of the Conficker impact. "It's not going to be fast [or] aggressive."

According to security vendor Trend Micro, the worm also installs malware that masquerades as antivirus software.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet Asia.

CPV solar farm

2009-04-30T10:31:00.003-07:00

The concentrated solar radiation is reflected from each individual mirror onto an array of solar cells. ZenithSolar uses field-proven high-efficiency multi-junction III-V solar cells for the job.

In conventional CPV systems, the excess heat generated in the solar cell needs to be removed to avoid damaging the cell and to maintain high efficiency of electricity conversion.

By contrast, ZenithSolar uses the heat generated at the solar-cell receiver to provide usable hot-water heating, improving overall solar power conversion efficiency.

Report: Conficker in attack mode

2009-04-30T10:31:00.001-07:00

The Conficker threat has a new twist, with the worm now reportedly installing a second mass-mailing virus that many know as Waledac.

Read also: Conficker's estimated economic cost? $9.1 billion

"Expect this to be long-term, slowly changing," Weafer was quoted as saying of the Conficker impact. "It's not going to be fast [or] aggressive."

According to security vendor Trend Micro, the worm also installs malware that masquerades as antivirus software.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet Asia.

Cyberspies breach US fighter-jet project: Report

2009-04-23T03:51:00.009-07:00

Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper quoted current and former government officials familiar with the matter as saying the intruders were able to copy and siphon data related to design and electronics systems, making it potentially easier to defend against the plane.

The spies could not access the most sensitive material, which is kept on computers that are not connected to the internet, the paper added.

Citing people briefed on the matter, it said the intruders entered through vulnerabilities in the networks of two or three of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet.

Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor. Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems also have major roles in the project. Lockheed Martin and BAE declined comment and Northrop referred questions to Lockheed, the paper said.

The Journal said Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on the matter, but the paper said the US Air Force had begun an investigation.

The identity of the attackers and the amount of damage to the project could not be established, the paper said.

The Journal quoted former US officials as saying the attacks seemed to have originated in China, although it noted it was difficult to determine the origin because of the ease of hiding identities online.

The Chinese Embassy said China "opposes and forbids all forms of cybercrimes", the Journal said.

The officials added there had also been breaches of the US Air Force's air-traffic control system in recent months.

Cyberspies breach US fighter-jet project: Report

2009-04-23T03:51:00.007-07:00

Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The spies could not access the most sensitive material, which is kept on computers that are not connected to the internet, the paper added.

Citing people briefed on the matter, it said the intruders entered through vulnerabilities in the networks of two or three of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet.

The Journal said Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on the matter, but the paper said the US Air Force had begun an investigation.

The identity of the attackers and the amount of damage to the project could not be established, the paper said.

The Chinese Embassy said China "opposes and forbids all forms of cybercrimes", the Journal said.

The officials added there had also been breaches of the US Air Force's air-traffic control system in recent months.

Cyberspies breach US fighter-jet project: Report

2009-04-23T03:51:00.005-07:00

Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The spies could not access the most sensitive material, which is kept on computers that are not connected to the internet, the paper added.

Citing people briefed on the matter, it said the intruders entered through vulnerabilities in the networks of two or three of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet.

The Journal said Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on the matter, but the paper said the US Air Force had begun an investigation.

The identity of the attackers and the amount of damage to the project could not be established, the paper said.

The Chinese Embassy said China "opposes and forbids all forms of cybercrimes", the Journal said.

The officials added there had also been breaches of the US Air Force's air-traffic control system in recent months.

Cyberspies breach US fighter-jet project: Report

2009-04-23T03:51:00.003-07:00

Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The spies could not access the most sensitive material, which is kept on computers that are not connected to the internet, the paper added.

Citing people briefed on the matter, it said the intruders entered through vulnerabilities in the networks of two or three of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet.

The Journal said Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on the matter, but the paper said the US Air Force had begun an investigation.

The identity of the attackers and the amount of damage to the project could not be established, the paper said.

The Chinese Embassy said China "opposes and forbids all forms of cybercrimes", the Journal said.

The officials added there had also been breaches of the US Air Force's air-traffic control system in recent months.

Cyberspies breach US fighter-jet project: Report

2009-04-23T03:51:00.001-07:00

Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The spies could not access the most sensitive material, which is kept on computers that are not connected to the internet, the paper added.

Citing people briefed on the matter, it said the intruders entered through vulnerabilities in the networks of two or three of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet.

The Journal said Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on the matter, but the paper said the US Air Force had begun an investigation.

The identity of the attackers and the amount of damage to the project could not be established, the paper said.

The Chinese Embassy said China "opposes and forbids all forms of cybercrimes", the Journal said.

The officials added there had also been breaches of the US Air Force's air-traffic control system in recent months.

More MOX

2009-04-06T15:49:00.001-07:00

Areva has signed a contract to supply Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel for Japan’s new Ohma nuclear power plant located in the Aomori prefecture and operated by the Japanese utility Electric Power Development.

MOX fuel is an alternative to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors that predominate nuclear power generation.

Under the terms of the contract, the fuel will be fabricated at Areva's Melox plant in southern France, using Japanese plutonium recovered from the treatment operations performed at Areva’s La Hague plant, thereby recycling it to be used in Japan as MOX fuel.

The Ohma nuclear power plant is scheduled tostart operation in 2014.

The contract comes as part of Japan’s nuclear programme to recycle used fuel, and follows contracts Areva signed in 2006 and 2008 with Japanese utilities Chubu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Kansai.

With 1,426 tons produced to date, Melox plant is the world’s leading producer of MOX fuel.

Wind fund

2009-04-04T15:59:00.003-07:00

The British Wind Energy Association(BWEA) has built up a £3.2m industry fund thatit plans to use to develop advanced technologies designed to solve issues such as wind turbine interference with radar.

When rotating, wind turbine blades show up on radar displays, which is of concern to both military and civil radar operators. The so-called Aviation Investment Fund Company (AIFC) will look at how to solve the problem, having already identified a number of technologies likely to yield a solution.

Maria McCaffery, chief executive of the BWEA, said: 'The aviation fund shows the wind industry's commitment to resolve aviation objections as a barrier to further wind-energy deployment. We have brought key parties to the table and have progressed negotiations from a memorandum of understanding in 2008, to the establishment of a fund management company to administer and oversee deployment of the funds raised.'

The first companies to support the AIFC are Airtricity, Banks Developments, E.On Climate & Renewables, EDF Energy Renewables, Ecotricity, Falck Renewables, Novera Energy, RES UK and Ireland, RWE Npower Renewables, ScottishPower Renewables, Vattenfall, West Coast Energy, Wind Prospect and Your Energy.

The BWEA hopes thatother companies with current or future potential wind farm aviation issues will also come on board in the future.

Wind fund

2009-04-04T15:59:00.001-07:00

The BWEA hopes thatother companies with current or future potential wind farm aviation issues will also come on board in the future.

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (Xbox 360)

2009-04-03T14:59:00.021-07:00

You might say that the UK is under-represented when it comes to public-access game events - shows where you can play previews of upcoming games and take part in multiplayer game tournaments. And pick up schwag.

The Germans get the yearly Game Convention, the Japanese Tokyo Game Show, the US the Penny Arcade Expo (regular punters still aren't allowed access to E3) but gamers in the UK - not much, except the successful, but PC-centric PC Gamer Showdown.

This year that all changes with the HMV sponsored Game On! London. The event is being run by the UKeSA, a nascent organisation tasked with developing and growing professional and grass-roots competitive gaming.

Hosting 25,000 attendees, Game On! London will be held in the Olympia Exhibition Center between 20th and 21st June 2009 and will give gamers the chance to play early versions of unreleased games and spectate at the Dell XPS Premiership Season One Finals - comprised of UK eSport's most elite gaming teams.

The GamesRadar network will be representing at the show and we'll let you know as soon as tickets become available and how much it's going to cost to get in. Plus keep an eye out for ticket giveaways to our most loyal readers near the time.

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (Xbox 360)

2009-04-03T14:59:00.019-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (Xbox 360)

2009-04-03T14:59:00.017-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

Verizon promises 4G wireless for rural America

2009-04-03T14:59:00.015-07:00

LAS VEGAS--The new 4G wireless broadband network that Verizon Wireless plans to launch in 2010 could be rural America's answer to its broadband access prayers. But extending the network to every nook and cranny in the U.S. will likely take years.

Tony Melone, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Verizon Wireless, said during an interview at the CTIA Wireless 2009 tradeshow here Wednesday that the new 4G network that the company is building will blanket the entire continental United States, including the far corners of rural America.

"The licenses we bought in the 700MHz auction cover the whole U.S.," Melone said. "And we plan to roll out LTE throughout the entire country, including places where we don't offer our CDMA cell phone service today."

See also:

CTIA Special Report

If Verizon makes good on this promise, it will be helping to bridge a widening gap between broadband haves and have-nots in this country. While Verizon Wireless' parent company Verizon Communications and other broadband providers have concentrated on building wireline broadband infrastructure in densely populated areas, such as cities and sprawling suburbs, they have not done a good job of extending that infrastructure to rural America.

The problem has been that building infrastructure for land-based broadband networks is expensive. And companies, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast say they can't make profits by offering service in sparsely populated regions because the cost to build these networks is too high and the number of potential customers is too few. And even though the federal government has provided some $1.2 billion in loans aimed at helping operators in the private sector build broadband networks in remote areas, the money hasn't been stretched to reach every community.

While broadband penetration has increased in rural areas over recent years, it's still not nearly at the same level as more densely populated regions. Only about 38 percent of rural American households have access to high-speed Internet connections, according to a study published by Pew Internet & American Life Project in July. This compares with about 57 percent of city dwellers who have access to broadband and 60 percent of people living in suburbs.

The result has been small towns and communities throughout the country that still have no access to high-speed Internet services. These communities have been stuck in dial-up limbo, waiting for the 21st century technology revolution to reach them. It's made it harder for businesses to grow and compete in the increasingly connected and tech savvy market. It's meant that workers have had a harder time finding jobs. And it's left an entire population less connected to important news and information that is increasingly found online.

Melone said that the spectrum Verizon acquired in last year's Federal Communications Commission's auction is ideally suited to help solve this problem. The spectrum that is being used to build the new network is in the 700 MHz band. Up until now, it has been used to broadcast analog TV.

Because the spectrum is in a lower frequency, it can transmit signals over longer distances and penetrate through obstacles. And because the signals travel longer distances, Verizon can deploy fewer cell towers than if it used spectrum from a higher frequency band, which means it can provide coverage at a lower cost.

Even though Verizon is primarily building the 4G wireless network to provide faster service for mobile devices, Melone said the network could also be used to provide fixed broadband access to rural homes.

"I can't pre-announce any products or services," he said. "But I can envision offering devices that are geared toward putting wireless broadband in the home. And then people could use Wi-Fi to share the connection with multiple devices like they do today with router connected to their DSL or cable modem service."

President Obama's administration is well aware of the high-speed Internet divide that exists today, and he has vowed to do something about it. As part of the overall economic stimulus package passed by Congress, the government is allocating $7.2 billion for projects that bring broadband Internet access to rural towns and communities.

Melone said it's too early to say if Verizon will request money from the government as part of the package to fund building its network in rural communities. But he said that with or without government money, Verizon is committed to providing service in rural areas via its 4G network.

"At this point we haven't made any attempt to get stimulus money for the LTE build-out," he said. "But it's still early in that process and there's not enough clarity around the stimulus package. We don't know what strings will be attached to that money. Regardless, we plan to blanket the country over a period of time with 4G. We bought the licenses to cover the entire continental U.S., and we plan on building the network where ever we have a license."

Still, rural Americans may have to wait years before Verizon's 4G network comes to them. Dick Lynch, CTO for Verizon Communications, said in February during an interview that the 4G network deployment would likely follow the plan used to build Verizon's 3G network. Under that plan, Verizon started with large metropolitan areas and filled out coverage from there. Verizon has said it plans to reach 20 to 30 markets by the end of 2010. And it will continue to add more coverage steadily after that, Melone said.

This article was originally published on CNET News.com.

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (Xbox 360)

2009-04-03T14:59:00.013-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

Verizon promises 4G wireless for rural America

2009-04-03T14:59:00.011-07:00

See also:

CTIA Special Report

This article was originally published on CNET News.com.

Verizon promises 4G wireless for rural America

2009-04-03T14:59:00.009-07:00

See also:

CTIA Special Report

This article was originally published on CNET News.com.

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (Nintendo Wii)

2009-04-03T14:59:00.007-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

Verizon promises 4G wireless for rural America

2009-04-03T14:59:00.005-07:00

See also:

CTIA Special Report

This article was originally published on CNET News.com.

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (Nintendo Wii)

2009-04-03T14:59:00.003-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (Nintendo Wii)

2009-04-03T14:59:00.001-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (PC)

2009-04-02T22:38:00.009-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (PC)

2009-04-02T22:38:00.007-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (PC)

2009-04-02T22:38:00.005-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (PC)

2009-04-02T22:38:00.003-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

UK gets its own public game event 'Game On! London' (PC)

2009-04-02T22:38:00.001-07:00

Meanwhile, If you fancy taking part in the season two UKeSA leagues you can sign up atwww.enemydown.eu/content/ukesa2

Apr 2, 2009

Dirty little secrets of the keyboard revealed

2009-03-12T14:56:00.001-07:00

Next time you are eating at your desk, try not to think of multitude of germs lurking on your keyboard along with some other unpleasant debris.

Nail clippings, chips, pastry crumbs, chewing gum and beard hair are some of the disagreeable detritus that accumulates inside the average office keyboard, according to Claire Burke, director of Keep IT Clean, an IT hardware cleaning company with clients including hotels and the NHS.

Burke told silicon.com, that IT chiefs call her company in so tech staff don't have to negotiate a minefield of grime when they are called on to fix a broken PC.

"If you get IT having to work on other people's computers, it's not fair if you have to scrape something off the keyboard," she said.

Last year researchers for Which Computing tested more than 30 keyboards from a typical London office and found some harbored levels of bacteria that could put their user at high risk of becoming ill. In one case a microbiologist suggested the removal of a keyboard as it had 150 times the recommended limit of bacteria five times filthier than a toilet seat that was swabbed in the same test.

The main cause of a bug-infested keyboard is users eating lunch at their desk, as the crumbs encourage the growth of millions of bacteria.

And with IT equipment shared with colleagues in call centres or 'hot desk' environments the problem isn't just one for the IT helpdesk workers, either.

The credit crunch is also having an impact on attitudes towards cleaning and replacing kit, Burke said: "The attitude is they would throw the keyboard away and get a new one but you can't do that now."

So what are the least pleasant things that Burke's team has come across?

"Smelly laptops," she said. "When people spend so much on IT equipment why do they let it get so bad?"

"You can always tell if they eat salt and vinegar chips because you can smell it," she added.

Burke's other least favorites include the scum on the bottom of the mouse, the fluff in the keyboard "that comes from nowhere" and the various crumbs that IT equipment attracts, as well as grime wiped on the side of keyboards by users.

This article was originally posted on silicon.com.

Building Exchange 14: Service now, server later

2009-03-04T02:53:00.003-08:00
REDMOND, Wash.--Rajesh Jha likens complex software projects to building a skyscraper.
That means in the end, the thing might look pretty good. Along the way, though, it tends to be kind of a mess.
"If you walk by the site of a skyscraper under construction, it looks chaotic," Microsoft corporate VP Rajesh Jha said in an interview last week. "It looks confused. You will see dirt, scaffolding."
At the end, though, if it is useful, it will be something worth all the dust.
"If it is designed well, what comes out is something that adds a lot of value, something that folks use for a long time."
But, with the next version of Exchange, Microsoft is actually going to be letting people work from the skyscraper while it is being built. That's because, although the server version of Exchange 14 won't come out until next year, millions of people are already using a hosted service powered by an early version of Exchange 14.
The last version of Exchange, Exchange 2007, was also designed to be run as a hosted service in addition to something used by businesses on their own servers. The last time around, though, Microsoft built the server software first and then delivered the service.
In developing Exchange 14--and indeed many components of the next Office--Microsoft has flipped the switch and is instead developing the service first and doing the server work second.
"In many ways, this wave was about embracing software plus services from the very beginning," Jha said.
By doing the service first, Microsoft is able to create a large base of testers early on. At a comparable stage of Exchange 2007's development, there were a few thousand people running an early version. This time around, Microsoft has 4 million testers, in large part because Exchange 14 is now the engine behind the Exchange Labs service that powers e-mail for many universities and other educational institutions.
That has meant a lot of changes to Redmond's skyscraper construction operation. "The way we do production and testing has really changed in a dramatic way," Jha said. "The release time frame has become so compressed."
In a sense, Exchange 14 isn't really a new piece of software as it is a bunch of updates to the Exchange Online service. "Then we collapse them and build a server," Jha said.
Keeping things neat and tidy amid chaos comes somewhat naturally to Jha, whose office is nearly immaculate, with only a few books, a couple of old boxed copies of Microsoft Works, and the "Ship-it" plaque that commemorates all of the products he has helped get out the door. Jha explains that he moves frequently and his goal was to get his office contents such that they take only one box to pack. (He narrowly missed that goal in his last office shuffle three months ago.)
"I'm moving again next month," Jha said.
For more from Jha, check out the video interview I shot last week.
This article was originally published on CNET News.

Building Exchange 14: Service now, server later

2009-03-04T02:53:00.001-08:00
REDMOND, Wash.--Rajesh Jha likens complex software projects to building a skyscraper.
That means in the end, the thing might look pretty good. Along the way, though, it tends to be kind of a mess.
"If you walk by the site of a skyscraper under construction, it looks chaotic," Microsoft corporate VP Rajesh Jha said in an interview last week. "It looks confused. You will see dirt, scaffolding."
At the end, though, if it is useful, it will be something worth all the dust.
"If it is designed well, what comes out is something that adds a lot of value, something that folks use for a long time."
But, with the next version of Exchange, Microsoft is actually going to be letting people work from the skyscraper while it is being built. That's because, although the server version of Exchange 14 won't come out until next year, millions of people are already using a hosted service powered by an early version of Exchange 14.
The last version of Exchange, Exchange 2007, was also designed to be run as a hosted service in addition to something used by businesses on their own servers. The last time around, though, Microsoft built the server software first and then delivered the service.
In developing Exchange 14--and indeed many components of the next Office--Microsoft has flipped the switch and is instead developing the service first and doing the server work second.
"In many ways, this wave was about embracing software plus services from the very beginning," Jha said.
By doing the service first, Microsoft is able to create a large base of testers early on. At a comparable stage of Exchange 2007's development, there were a few thousand people running an early version. This time around, Microsoft has 4 million testers, in large part because Exchange 14 is now the engine behind the Exchange Labs service that powers e-mail for many universities and other educational institutions.
That has meant a lot of changes to Redmond's skyscraper construction operation. "The way we do production and testing has really changed in a dramatic way," Jha said. "The release time frame has become so compressed."
In a sense, Exchange 14 isn't really a new piece of software as it is a bunch of updates to the Exchange Online service. "Then we collapse them and build a server," Jha said.
Keeping things neat and tidy amid chaos comes somewhat naturally to Jha, whose office is nearly immaculate, with only a few books, a couple of old boxed copies of Microsoft Works, and the "Ship-it" plaque that commemorates all of the products he has helped get out the door. Jha explains that he moves frequently and his goal was to get his office contents such that they take only one box to pack. (He narrowly missed that goal in his last office shuffle three months ago.)
"I'm moving again next month," Jha said.
For more from Jha, check out the video interview I shot last week.
This article was originally published on CNET News.

Building Exchange 14: Service now, server later

2009-03-03T21:46:00.001-08:00
REDMOND, Wash.--Rajesh Jha likens complex software projects to building a skyscraper.
That means in the end, the thing might look pretty good. Along the way, though, it tends to be kind of a mess.
"If you walk by the site of a skyscraper under construction, it looks chaotic," Microsoft corporate VP Rajesh Jha said in an interview last week. "It looks confused. You will see dirt, scaffolding."
At the end, though, if it is useful, it will be something worth all the dust.
"If it is designed well, what comes out is something that adds a lot of value, something that folks use for a long time."
But, with the next version of Exchange, Microsoft is actually going to be letting people work from the skyscraper while it is being built. That's because, although the server version of Exchange 14 won't come out until next year, millions of people are already using a hosted service powered by an early version of Exchange 14.
The last version of Exchange, Exchange 2007, was also designed to be run as a hosted service in addition to something used by businesses on their own servers. The last time around, though, Microsoft built the server software first and then delivered the service.
In developing Exchange 14--and indeed many components of the next Office--Microsoft has flipped the switch and is instead developing the service first and doing the server work second.
"In many ways, this wave was about embracing software plus services from the very beginning," Jha said.
By doing the service first, Microsoft is able to create a large base of testers early on. At a comparable stage of Exchange 2007's development, there were a few thousand people running an early version. This time around, Microsoft has 4 million testers, in large part because Exchange 14 is now the engine behind the Exchange Labs service that powers e-mail for many universities and other educational institutions.
That has meant a lot of changes to Redmond's skyscraper construction operation. "The way we do production and testing has really changed in a dramatic way," Jha said. "The release time frame has become so compressed."
In a sense, Exchange 14 isn't really a new piece of software as it is a bunch of updates to the Exchange Online service. "Then we collapse them and build a server," Jha said.
Keeping things neat and tidy amid chaos comes somewhat naturally to Jha, whose office is nearly immaculate, with only a few books, a couple of old boxed copies of Microsoft Works, and the "Ship-it" plaque that commemorates all of the products he has helped get out the door. Jha explains that he moves frequently and his goal was to get his office contents such that they take only one box to pack. (He narrowly missed that goal in his last office shuffle three months ago.)
"I'm moving again next month," Jha said.
For more from Jha, check out the video interview I shot last week.
This article was originally published on CNET News.

BBC hires Yahoo exec as CTO

2009-02-27T13:55:00.001-08:00
The BBC has hired Yahoo! executive John Linwood as its new CTO.
Linwood will be responsible for delivering the BBC's technology strategy, including maintenance of the technical infrastructure behind all BBC output and overseeing the corporation's IT requirements.
Also read: Yahoo's Bartz begins to clean house.
He joins the BBC from Yahoo!, where he was senior VP of international engineering, overseeing 1,600 staff across 22 countries, with responsibility for the development, deployment and delivery of Yahoo!'s services outside the U.S.
Linwood was also involved with Yahoo!'s social networking, social media and user-generated content products as well as ecommerce and search. Linwood previously worked for Microsoft for 11 years.
Director of BBC Future Media and Technology Erik Huggers said more of the BBC's content is being produced and distributed using digital platforms, placing a greater emphasis on software engineering.
Linwood will take up the role from April 1.
This article was originally posted on

Open source traits lead to secure applications

2009-02-19T13:55:00.003-08:00
SINGAPORE--The manner in which open source tools are developed lends a level of security assurance to the applications that are built on this model, said Sun Microsystems executives.
Roman Tuma, Asia South software practice managing director at Sun, noted that due to the inherent nature of open source, anyone can review the source codes to look for irregularities that could potentially harm users.
"I do see it as being more secure or more 'transparent' than proprietary software," Tuma said in an interview Wednesday, on the sidelines of this week's Open Source Singapore Pacific-Asia Conference here, where he was a speaker. The Sun executive is also a member of Singapore's National Authentication Framework Committee and the Philippines Ministry of Communication's Advisory Committee on Cyber Security.
While this unfettered trait may seem to create an "unsecured environment", where "developers are all over the place", he noted that it is not necessary to monitor the process too closely to ensure security.
"You know in general, when you give people freedom, you embrace creativity. When you start to police it, some people get scared and will turn their backs [on developing for it]," he said.
The open source community itself is a good deterrent against the creation of harmful codes, Tuma added, noting that developers who introduce bad codes are often severely criticized by their peers.
"When you see people [in the community] try to contribute something that doesn't fit, the [feedback] is very cruel--the person gets 'sloshed' by the community. It is free, but there is a certain level of pride in [being part of the open source community]," he said.
S. Rohit, Sun's Asia South software practice business development director, said the quality assurance process in open source development is "exactly the same" as how it is carried out for proprietary software.
Rohit told ZDNet Asia that a group of open source developers is dedicated to managing the code base. "And they make sure that the quality audits and security checks are in place," he added.
Tuma said an additional level of security is implemented when organizations engage IT vendors to maintain their open source applications.
"When companies like Sun, step in and review the source code, you get a certain level of security into a product," he said. "We take steps to ensure there's a certain level of security, in whatever is delivered to a customer to run its critical applications."
Growing open demand
Tuma is also encouraged by the warming reception toward open source from organizations in the region.
"I think the current economy's helping open source tremendously. And second, businesses realize that the maturity of open source has reached a point where they can seriously consider it for an enterprise deployment," he said.
Another driver in the region stems from open source's potential of "giving people knowledge, basically for free", he noted."I saw recently in the Philippines, a hunger of its people to be competitive. In places like Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, the people are literally trying to equip themselves to be marketable, and that's one of the drivers," he added.
Governments in the region, too, are warming up to open source, noted Tuma.
"I believe, in the next 12 to 18 months, we will see more of open source software in the government sector in Southeast Asia. We already see a lot of it in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia," he said.
According to Tuma, Sun will be stepping up its efforts to encourage greater adoption across Singapore's public sector, given the government's urging Tuesday for the open source community to participate in the country's Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015).
This article was originally published on ZDNet Asia

Managed print services right for your business?

2009-02-19T13:55:00.001-08:00
Commentary--From aerospace and defense contractors to financial services and healthcare providers, businesses are starting to realize the bottom line benefit to getting their output under control. They are doing this through Managed Print Services (MPS) a defined and mature strategy designed to help manage the volume of documents flowing through the organization and minimize the costs associated with printing, sharing and updating them.
Often overlooked, print is an infrastructure just as important as facilities, telecommunications and IT networks, and the long-term results of a successful MPS partnership includes enhanced productivity, increased compliance and improved environmental sustainability, to name a few.
How do you know if your business should explore an MPS relationship? Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Will this effort truly deliver a defined and hard dollar return on investment? Gartner says yes. According to their research, enterprises can save up to 30 percent on printing services by selecting the right partner. KeyCorp worked with Xerox to design an MPS strategy to save more than $6 million on operating costs. Dow Chemical used Xerox Managed Print Services to reduce print related spend by more than $20 million in five years. Multiple case studies exist in financial services, manufacturing, aerospace, retail/consumer goods, healthcare, insurance and government entities with very similar results.
2. Are you benefiting from your current investments? Consider what went into the decision-making process for your companys current output environment including the current fleet of multi-vendor copiers, printers and other hardware. Is it still delivering what you need? Could it do more like scanning and imaging for easy access to documents? A qualified MPS partner will assess the environment and also help transform key document driven business processes.
3. Can your technology keep up? As a business changes and evolves, so must its output solution. If the current technology is unable to keep up with the demand from additional employees and increased usage, it is merely a drain on your financial and human resources. Or, if your current strategy does not provide flexibility as the total employee population fluctuates up or down, you have an opportunity for improvement. Whats more, while the economic environment may mean you need to hold onto your technology assets for a longer period of time, MPS will still reduce costs by combining the right technology with software, services, and proven best practices so your business can streamline workflow, eliminate time consuming manual tasks, speed up access to critical information and reduce operational costs.
4. Does your print infrastructure support other company objectives? Implementing MPS not only tackles cost and productivity goals, but it can be a sustainable business practice too. By decreasing the number of output devices from 10,000 to 3,500, KeyCorps MPS strategy also addresses a corporate commitment to reduce paper consumption, decrease power usage and eliminate several tons of landfill waste. How? By strategically rationalizing the ratio of output devices to your employee population, you will reduce energy usage leading to reduced carbon production and greenhouse gases. Eliminating unnecessary output helps save a significant amount of fresh water and trees via the reduction in the paper and pulp manufacturing process.
5. Does downtime cost you? One of the fundamental challenges when assessing printing expenses is determining what is being spent and where. When your IT department is constantly fixing hardware while employees are unable to effectively print, scan and handle documents, all departments suffer. Whats more, printing costs are often buried in various department budgets and each employee likely has a personalized work process that may not be optimal to reducing overall printing costs. Providers utilizing Lean Six Sigma or other proven methodologies unlock the potential to save up to 30 percent of total document costs by identifying ways to eliminate errors and unnecessary steps. By leveraging intelligent network-based tools to monitor all devices, proactive management strategies can be implemented to help avoid unnecessary downtime. It is reasonable to expect your employees to have access to output as needed 100 percent of the time.
6. Do you have more important things to focus on than print? Most businesses do not have the print management knowledge internally to handle local, national and even global print solutions without outside help. An MPS partner brings the expertise to manage, upgrade and improve millions of devices, while empowering the workforce to embrace productivity and operational changes through effective change management programs. By assessing digital and paper document volume, related work processes and the technology that supports it, an MPS partner will develop a plan that achieves the right formula for existing employee work habits, daily volume and organizational readiness for implementing new strategies.
While MPS is not a new solution, it is one that can maximize short-term cost savings, while adding value that will prime your business for growth in the future. The first step is to see your print infrastructure as a means of leveraging new sources of value.
biography
Jim Joyce is a senior vice president for Xerox Managed Print Services. For more information visit Xerox office services.

Single charger coming for mobile phones

2009-02-18T13:55:00.001-08:00
Major phone makers and mobile operators have agreed to adopt a single interface for handset chargers, the GSM Association announced on Tuesday.
By 2012, more than half of new handsets shipped will use Micro-USB as the interface for charging, the mobile trade body said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. People will be able to use a single charger to revive devices from the 17 manufacturers and operators participating in the initiative.
The adoption of Micro-USB as a common standard has several advantages for users and the industry, the GSM Association (GSMA) said. In particular, it allows manufacturers to stop shipping a new charger with every handset, and it lets buyers avoid the need to have multiple chargers for different devices.
"The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in tackling environmental issues, and this program is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers," said Rob Conway, the GSMA's chief executive, in a statement. "There is enormous potential in mobile to help people live and work in an eco-friendly way, and with the backing of some of the biggest names in the industry, this initiative will lead the way."
Companies signed up to the initiative include Nokia, Motorola, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, 3, Telefnica and Vodafone. HTC was not on the list of compliant companies in the announcement, but an HTC spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that the manufacturer will participate in the scheme.
Separately, the Chinese government mandated the use of Micro-USB as the standard for phone chargers at the end of 2006.
In September 2007, the Open Mobile Terminal Platform industry forum announced that its members had decided on Micro-USB as a common charger-interface standard.
Asked why it took a year-and-a-half for the mobile industry to commit to a timescale for introduction, GSMA chief architect Ian Pannell said work was done during that time to toughen the interface specification up for regular mobile-phone use.
"A number of elements [of the revised specification] were only recently completed, such as building more safety and robustness into it for charging," Pannell told ZDNet UK. He explained that Micro-USB was originally designed more for connectivity purposes than for charging.
While two or three versions of Micro-USB exist, the participants of the GSMA initiative will hold to just one, "bog-standard" version, Pannell said.
According to Pannell, Micro-USB has more longevity than the larger, more widely found Mini-USB standard. Micro-USB slots are able to withstand 10,000 insertions, rather than just 1,000 for Mini-USB, he said.
Pannell also said that peripherals makers, which have benefited from the multitude of charger interfaces, will "not necessarily lose out" because of the new standard, but will "have to respond to what's happening and innovate".
This article was originally published on ZDNet.co.uk.

Skype strikes deal with Nokia

2009-02-17T14:48:00.003-08:00
BARCELONA--Skype is racking up deals with mobile handset makers here at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009.
On Tuesday, the company, which is owned by eBay, announced a partnership with Nokia, the largest cell phone maker in the world, to put the Skype Internet calling software onto its phones. Nokia will initially offer Skype on its high-end smartphones, the N-series. The N97, Nokia's flagship device that goes on sale in June, will be the first to have Skype embedded. The Skype feature will start shipping on the device in the third quarter of 2009.
Skype will be integrated into the N97 address book, enabling users to see when Skype contacts are online. It will also let people use Skype's instant-messaging client. Most importantly, N97 users will be able to make free and low-cost phone calls over the Internet whether they are on a 3G cellular network or a Wi-Fi network. The Skype-to-Skype voice calls are free. And the SkypeOut service, which allows calls from Skype to landlines and mobile devices, offers low rates.
Nokia's not the only handset maker to announce a deal with Skype at Mobile World Congress. On Monday, Sony Ericsson announced it would be offering a Skype "panel" on the Windows Mobile Xperia1 device.
Adding Skype to smartphones is a great benefit for consumers, especially people who travel internationally or have friends and family overseas. While pricing on domestic voice services has been dropping like a brick from a third-story window, international rates have remained high.
As a consumer who likes to travel and who happens to be traveling internationally right now for this trade show, I am annoyed and almost angered at the outrageous prices mobile operators charge when customers roam in other countries or make international calls from the U.S. They all try to sell "international" plans to help defray the cost, but the plans themselves cost consumers an extra fee every month regardless of whether they're traveling that month or not.
Skype and other VoIP services offer users a more cost-effective alternative. And Skype on a mobile phone, when accessed on a low-cost data network, could help people who travel frequently or make lots of international calls save tons of money.
Of course, the two smartphone makers Skype has announced as partners here are manufacturers that are already struggling to get their high-end devices on American mobile networks. And my guess is that adding Skype won't do much to convince these operators to offer these phones and subsidize them so that American consumers will buy them.
The reason is pretty simple. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA know that a wide-scale deployment of Skype on their phones could cannibalize their international voice services and potentially hurt their domestic voice service.
So if by chance, Nokia or Sony Ericsson manages to win approval from a U.S. operator to get these phones on their networks, I wouldn't be surprised if the Skype feature is stripped from the device in the U.S. version.
That said, AT&T is allowing some voice over IP applications to appear on Apple's iPhone App Store. And Skype users are able to make free and low-cost calls through applications, such as Truphone. But for now, AT&T and Apple seem hesitant to allow Skype's powerful brand, which has more than 400 million registered users, to make it onto the iPhone.

Skype strikes deal with Nokia

2009-02-17T14:48:00.001-08:00
BARCELONA--Skype is racking up deals with mobile handset makers here at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009.
On Tuesday, the company, which is owned by eBay, announced a partnership with Nokia, the largest cell phone maker in the world, to put the Skype Internet calling software onto its phones. Nokia will initially offer Skype on its high-end smartphones, the N-series. The N97, Nokia's flagship device that goes on sale in June, will be the first to have Skype embedded. The Skype feature will start shipping on the device in the third quarter of 2009.
Skype will be integrated into the N97 address book, enabling users to see when Skype contacts are online. It will also let people use Skype's instant-messaging client. Most importantly, N97 users will be able to make free and low-cost phone calls over the Internet whether they are on a 3G cellular network or a Wi-Fi network. The Skype-to-Skype voice calls are free. And the SkypeOut service, which allows calls from Skype to landlines and mobile devices, offers low rates.
Nokia's not the only handset maker to announce a deal with Skype at Mobile World Congress. On Monday, Sony Ericsson announced it would be offering a Skype "panel" on the Windows Mobile Xperia1 device.
Adding Skype to smartphones is a great benefit for consumers, especially people who travel internationally or have friends and family overseas. While pricing on domestic voice services has been dropping like a brick from a third-story window, international rates have remained high.
As a consumer who likes to travel and who happens to be traveling internationally right now for this trade show, I am annoyed and almost angered at the outrageous prices mobile operators charge when customers roam in other countries or make international calls from the U.S. They all try to sell "international" plans to help defray the cost, but the plans themselves cost consumers an extra fee every month regardless of whether they're traveling that month or not.
Skype and other VoIP services offer users a more cost-effective alternative. And Skype on a mobile phone, when accessed on a low-cost data network, could help people who travel frequently or make lots of international calls save tons of money.
Of course, the two smartphone makers Skype has announced as partners here are manufacturers that are already struggling to get their high-end devices on American mobile networks. And my guess is that adding Skype won't do much to convince these operators to offer these phones and subsidize them so that American consumers will buy them.
The reason is pretty simple. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA know that a wide-scale deployment of Skype on their phones could cannibalize their international voice services and potentially hurt their domestic voice service.
So if by chance, Nokia or Sony Ericsson manages to win approval from a U.S. operator to get these phones on their networks, I wouldn't be surprised if the Skype feature is stripped from the device in the U.S. version.
That said, AT&T is allowing some voice over IP applications to appear on Apple's iPhone App Store. And Skype users are able to make free and low-cost calls through applications, such as Truphone. But for now, AT&T and Apple seem hesitant to allow Skype's powerful brand, which has more than 400 million registered users, to make it onto the iPhone.

Skype strikes deal with Nokia

2009-02-17T14:47:00.007-08:00
BARCELONA--Skype is racking up deals with mobile handset makers here at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009.
On Tuesday, the company, which is owned by eBay, announced a partnership with Nokia, the largest cell phone maker in the world, to put the Skype Internet calling software onto its phones. Nokia will initially offer Skype on its high-end smartphones, the N-series. The N97, Nokia's flagship device that goes on sale in June, will be the first to have Skype embedded. The Skype feature will start shipping on the device in the third quarter of 2009.
Skype will be integrated into the N97 address book, enabling users to see when Skype contacts are online. It will also let people use Skype's instant-messaging client. Most importantly, N97 users will be able to make free and low-cost phone calls over the Internet whether they are on a 3G cellular network or a Wi-Fi network. The Skype-to-Skype voice calls are free. And the SkypeOut service, which allows calls from Skype to landlines and mobile devices, offers low rates.
Nokia's not the only handset maker to announce a deal with Skype at Mobile World Congress. On Monday, Sony Ericsson announced it would be offering a Skype "panel" on the Windows Mobile Xperia1 device.
Adding Skype to smartphones is a great benefit for consumers, especially people who travel internationally or have friends and family overseas. While pricing on domestic voice services has been dropping like a brick from a third-story window, international rates have remained high.
As a consumer who likes to travel and who happens to be traveling internationally right now for this trade show, I am annoyed and almost angered at the outrageous prices mobile operators charge when customers roam in other countries or make international calls from the U.S. They all try to sell "international" plans to help defray the cost, but the plans themselves cost consumers an extra fee every month regardless of whether they're traveling that month or not.
Skype and other VoIP services offer users a more cost-effective alternative. And Skype on a mobile phone, when accessed on a low-cost data network, could help people who travel frequently or make lots of international calls save tons of money.
Of course, the two smartphone makers Skype has announced as partners here are manufacturers that are already struggling to get their high-end devices on American mobile networks. And my guess is that adding Skype won't do much to convince these operators to offer these phones and subsidize them so that American consumers will buy them.
The reason is pretty simple. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA know that a wide-scale deployment of Skype on their phones could cannibalize their international voice services and potentially hurt their domestic voice service.
So if by chance, Nokia or Sony Ericsson manages to win approval from a U.S. operator to get these phones on their networks, I wouldn't be surprised if the Skype feature is stripped from the device in the U.S. version.
That said, AT&T is allowing some voice over IP applications to appear on Apple's iPhone App Store. And Skype users are able to make free and low-cost calls through applications, such as Truphone. But for now, AT&T and Apple seem hesitant to allow Skype's powerful brand, which has more than 400 million registered users, to make it onto the iPhone.

Mozilla shifts code development to the cloud

2009-02-17T14:47:00.005-08:00
The Mozilla Foundation's Developer Tools Lab, formed in October, has released its first prototype project - a web-based, collaborative code-editing framework named Bespin, after the planet where Cloud City is located in the Star Wars universe.
Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, the leaders of the Developer Tools Lab, said the aim of the project is to follow the example of tools such as Google Apps in shifting desktop-based tasks to the Internet.
Almaer said in a blog post: "As a challenge, we wanted to take on an interesting project that you would normally think of as a desktop application, and see if it would fly on the web. Being developers, why not develop something that we know and use every day? Our code editor."
Shifting the code editor to the web should make it easier for developers to collaborate, and one goal of the project is to enable live-coding sessions, Almaer said.
The tool is browser-based, so developers should be able to access it from any device using a standards-compliant browser, he said. Other high-level goals include ease of use, integration of the command line, standards compliance and extensibility, he said.
The initial release is only a preview, intended to get users and other developers involved, and Mozilla's initial focus was on performance, Almaer said.
Mozilla said: "The initial prototype framework... includes support for basic editing features, such as syntax highlighting, large file sizes, undo/redo, previewing files in the browser [and] importing/exporting projects."
Bespin 0.1 supports commands similar to those used in Ubiquity, a Mozilla Firefox browser extension that allows users to execute a variety of tasks simply by typing a command into the browser. The developers plan eventually to unite Bespin and Ubiquity, Almaer said.
He wrote: "Bespin commands look like Ubiquity commands, and we want to fully integrate them."
The project is accessible from Mozilla Labs's website, and requires a browser that implements an HTML 5 feature called Canvas. The developers said they have tested Bespin on Firefox 3 and WebKit Nightly, a test version of the open-source framework underlying Apple's Safari browser.
This article was originally published on ZDNet.co.uk.

Mozilla shifts code development to the cloud

2009-02-17T14:47:00.003-08:00
The Mozilla Foundation's Developer Tools Lab, formed in October, has released its first prototype project - a web-based, collaborative code-editing framework named Bespin, after the planet where Cloud City is located in the Star Wars universe.
Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, the leaders of the Developer Tools Lab, said the aim of the project is to follow the example of tools such as Google Apps in shifting desktop-based tasks to the Internet.
Almaer said in a blog post: "As a challenge, we wanted to take on an interesting project that you would normally think of as a desktop application, and see if it would fly on the web. Being developers, why not develop something that we know and use every day? Our code editor."
Shifting the code editor to the web should make it easier for developers to collaborate, and one goal of the project is to enable live-coding sessions, Almaer said.
The tool is browser-based, so developers should be able to access it from any device using a standards-compliant browser, he said. Other high-level goals include ease of use, integration of the command line, standards compliance and extensibility, he said.
The initial release is only a preview, intended to get users and other developers involved, and Mozilla's initial focus was on performance, Almaer said.
Mozilla said: "The initial prototype framework... includes support for basic editing features, such as syntax highlighting, large file sizes, undo/redo, previewing files in the browser [and] importing/exporting projects."
Bespin 0.1 supports commands similar to those used in Ubiquity, a Mozilla Firefox browser extension that allows users to execute a variety of tasks simply by typing a command into the browser. The developers plan eventually to unite Bespin and Ubiquity, Almaer said.
He wrote: "Bespin commands look like Ubiquity commands, and we want to fully integrate them."
The project is accessible from Mozilla Labs's website, and requires a browser that implements an HTML 5 feature called Canvas. The developers said they have tested Bespin on Firefox 3 and WebKit Nightly, a test version of the open-source framework underlying Apple's Safari browser.
This article was originally published on ZDNet.co.uk.

Mozilla shifts code development to the cloud

2009-02-17T14:47:00.001-08:00
The Mozilla Foundation's Developer Tools Lab, formed in October, has released its first prototype project - a web-based, collaborative code-editing framework named Bespin, after the planet where Cloud City is located in the Star Wars universe.
Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, the leaders of the Developer Tools Lab, said the aim of the project is to follow the example of tools such as Google Apps in shifting desktop-based tasks to the Internet.
Almaer said in a blog post: "As a challenge, we wanted to take on an interesting project that you would normally think of as a desktop application, and see if it would fly on the web. Being developers, why not develop something that we know and use every day? Our code editor."
Shifting the code editor to the web should make it easier for developers to collaborate, and one goal of the project is to enable live-coding sessions, Almaer said.
The tool is browser-based, so developers should be able to access it from any device using a standards-compliant browser, he said. Other high-level goals include ease of use, integration of the command line, standards compliance and extensibility, he said.
The initial release is only a preview, intended to get users and other developers involved, and Mozilla's initial focus was on performance, Almaer said.
Mozilla said: "The initial prototype framework... includes support for basic editing features, such as syntax highlighting, large file sizes, undo/redo, previewing files in the browser [and] importing/exporting projects."
Bespin 0.1 supports commands similar to those used in Ubiquity, a Mozilla Firefox browser extension that allows users to execute a variety of tasks simply by typing a command into the browser. The developers plan eventually to unite Bespin and Ubiquity, Almaer said.
He wrote: "Bespin commands look like Ubiquity commands, and we want to fully integrate them."
The project is accessible from Mozilla Labs's website, and requires a browser that implements an HTML 5 feature called Canvas. The developers said they have tested Bespin on Firefox 3 and WebKit Nightly, a test version of the open-source framework underlying Apple's Safari browser.
This article was originally published on ZDNet.co.uk.

Marathon man Szabo wins opening day epic

2009-02-15T13:55:00.001-08:00
You have to hand it to Australian qualifier Jordan Szabo, who certainly earned his place in the second round of the Australian Open boys’ tournament with a stomach-churning 76 16 1311 win over Ronak Manuja of India which got the tournament off to a dramatic start.

“I just kept going," said Szabo afterwards. “I had a match point at 9-8 on his serve and then another three or four at 10-11 and then finally took one to go 13-11. I was definitely starting to get tired at the end. I felt pretty good but I was definitely starting to feel like I needed food and stuff. It felt like we’d been going for well over three hours and then I found out afterwards it was three and a half hours. It’s quite a long time, especially when one of the sets was 6-1. It’s the longest match I’ve ever played."

Szabo admitted that beating Manuja had been the toughest mental and physical test of his junior career but said that coming through against the gutsy Indian was a huge confidence boost for him. “I’ve never played a match where it was advantage before and I think it worked in my favour because I would rather have done that than played a tiebreaker," said Szabo, who plays Japan’s Shuichi Sekiguchi in the second round. “I had to play qualifying last week in Nottinghill and I had to play two matches, which meant I played five sets in one day. So I knew that I could do it because the match today was similar to playing five sets.

“My concentration wavered a bit but I just really wanted to take care of my serve because I knew that if I lost serve then I could break him to get back on serve. It was hard when I missed all those match-points but he got all his serves in and I couldn’t be aggressive on them. I was probably a bit tight and tentative as well but then it was such a close match that I probably deserved to be a bit tight. I just know that I need to keep playing my game and be aggressive in those situations and I’m just happy that I got another opportunity to play out there again."

The match drew quite a crowd and made for compelling viewing, not least for those who had come to support Melburnian Szabo and cheer him on. “This is my home town and there were lots of my friends and family and there was a big crowd because it was so tight and because I’m Australian," he said. “It was awesome. I just want to get out there again and play. I’m sure the experience will help me when I go out and play Futures later in the year because now I’ve won tough matches at a grand slam and I guess that’s the pinnacle for a junior player."

In other boys’ matches on day one of the first ITF junior grand slam of the season,
top seed Yuki Bhambri of India had a struggle of his own before beating German Sanchez-Delfin of Mexico 64 16 86. Spain’s Carlos Boluda-Purkiss eased into round two with a 62 61 win over Zimbabwean Mbonisi Ndimande and second seed Julen Uriguen of Guatemala also progressed with little fuss, thanks to a 75 64 win over Toni Androic of Croatia.

In the girls’ competition, Great Britain’s Heather Watson was in imperious form in beating Australian Harriet Sheahan 62 61, while top seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand and second seed Ana Bogdan of Romania also both progressed. “I was really excited before the match because I just had so much energy and then we walked on the court and the ballboys were great, the atmosphere was great and I was on such a good court. I played really well and I’m really proud of that first round," said Watson. “This is my third junior grand slam – Wimbledon was my first – and it’s such a great experience because you’re mixing with the pros and it just seems so much better than any other tournament. You feel like you are actually in the adult Australian Open not just the juniors. I watch all the grand slams on TV, I watched the players and the way the fans crowd around and now I just want everyone to know who I am."

Related Articles

>Australian Open Preview
>Australian Open Acceptance Lists Published

AMD announces socket AM3 Phenom II processors

2009-02-11T13:58:00.005-08:00
AMD has this morning announced five new additions to its Phenom II processor family, which all feature support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory.

We were expecting to publish a full review of the new processors today, but this weekend's move into our new headquarters in London has delayed things somewhat after a few teething problems during our testing.

There are three new quad-core and a pair of triple-core processors that have been introduced today, all of which are using the new 45nm SOI fabrication process. Of the three quad-core chips, two are clocked at 2.6GHz - the Phenom II X4 910 and 810 - and a third, the Phenom II X4 805, runs at 2.5GHz.

Lower down the range, the two triple-core processors, the Phenom II X3 720 and 710, will come clocked at 2.8GHz and 2.6GHz respectively. Both feature 1.5MB of L2 cache and a full 6MB of L3 and the model 720 processor is also a Black Edition, which means its multiplier is unlocked.

All of the processors announced today support DDR2 memory at up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) and DDR3 at up to PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) speeds. There is a catch though - if you're running four DIMMs (to use, say, 8GB of RAM), the supported speeds drop to PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066), effectively nullifying the advantage of DDR3. To be honest, (and we've still yet to finish testing) things are not looking that wonderful for AMD, with DDR3 at 1,333MHz at CAS-7 sometimes affording a negligible performance benefit. AMD itself states "five percent" to us, but this is only in particular applications.

Without expressly confirming with bit-tech, AMD in not so many words has incinuated that it will require a whole new core revision before four DDR3 DIMMs are supported at full speed, so it maybe worth waiting to upgrade. It's unfortunate, because the latest batch of AM3 motherboards, like the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P we used for testing, seem very good.

The 910 and 810 processors are fundamentally the same and the only difference appears to be in cache size - the 900 series Phenom IIs feature 6MB of shared L3 cache, while on the 800 series this is reduced to 4MB. The cache reduction shouldn't have much of an impact on performance - we'll have a detailed performance breakdown on this soon - but it should save you a bit of cash if you want to upgrade.

Pricing for the 910 and 805 hasn't been confirmed yet - it's not on AMD's official price list - but the 810, 720 and 710 are priced at $175, $145 and $125 respectively when purchased in 1,000 unit quantities. Since the Phenom II X4 920 is listed at $195, that means we can expect the 910 to fit in around the $185 price point but it's OEM only and not a boxed model.

We'll reserve our final judgements until our review, but for now you can share your thoughts on AMD's transition to DDR3 memory in the forums.

Britain buys more games than Japan

2009-02-11T13:58:00.003-08:00
In the world of sales figures, America and Japan have commonly been seen to dominate the market - which is why so many games nowadays seem to cater to those markets. There's nothing but big muscles and spiky hair - not a Brogue-wearing businessman in sight.

Or, at least, that used to be the case. Japan it seems is no longer the market leader it once was, with the UK growing it's gaming market to become the nation with the second-biggest gaming market ever.

According to GfK ChartTrack, a sales-tracking firm that monitors retail games sales across the world, the UK's games sales have risen by more than 37 percent compared to January 2008, with total software sales rising by 26 percent. What recession, eh?

That said, it's important to consider the number of factors here - such as the fact that a lot of games and platforms are released early in Japan, so customers over their will have already got over the sales spurt bought on by the release of the DSi. Thus, while the UK is still steadily improving, Japan is actually in decline according to a ChartTrack spokesperson.

"Japan is certainly in decline at the moment, mainly down to the fact that everyone seems to have already bought a DS or PSP, so hardware sales aren’t driving software sales – although DSi is flying off the shelves," a spokesperson said to MCV.

"The very sudden decline of PS2 is also a factor. The Japanese market is about twice the size of ours, so there is room for manoeuvre in terms of people who had a DS four years ago and want a new handheld."

Have you been buying more games than usual? Let us know what you think in the forums.

Bundled Firefox not the "right outcome"

2009-02-11T13:58:00.001-08:00
The Mozilla Foundation's Mike Connor has declared that he doesn't feel forcing Microsoft to bundle Firefox as an alternative with Windows is "the right outcome" of an EU ruling that Microsoft has been abusing its position as a software monopoly.

Speaking in an interview with PC Pro, Connor declared that forcing Microsoft to include other browsers as a choice at installation time was "not the right outcome" of the EU's investigation into the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows, and that there was "no good UI" that would allow such a choice without confusing users.

The case against the software giant's bundling practices was brought to the EU's attention by browser specialist Opera – but Connor believes that the whole argument is a waste of time. Attacking Opera's statements that competition is stifled by the practice of software bundling, Connor stated that "Opera [was] asserting something that's provably false," and that he didn't know how the company could make the claim that bundling has a direct affect on market share "with a straight face."

In that, he may have a point: while Opera's share of the worldwide browser market might be stagnating at the 0.7 percent mark, Firefox's share has surpassed 20 percent and is steadily growing – despite the package not being bundled on either of the 'mainstream' retail-level operating systems, MacOS and Windows. Connor believes that the secret to market share lies not in forcing alternatives to be bundled at the OS level, but in being "perceptibly better" than the competition – thus increasing awareness of the alternatives.

When asked his opinion on why Opera has such a small chunk of the browser market, Connor claimed that the browser was "a little too heavy, it's a geeky browser. Opera's problem is that it works, but doesn't stay out of the way. There's a little too much to distract you from the content."

Despite this rather scathing review of the competition, Connor did admit that the browser has "cleaned up" its interface in recent times and had nothing but praise for its mobile incarnations, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile – despite plans for a mobile version of Firefox codenamed Fennec that would compete directly with Opera on yet another front.

Do you think that Connor is wrong when he claims that bundling doesn't lead to increased market share, or would offering multiple browsers at OS installation time just confuse users into making a bad decision? Are his comments about Opera spot-on, or gloating from a bad winner? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Intel unveils 32nm process technology

2009-02-11T13:57:00.011-08:00
You probably thought that a 45nm transistor was pretty small, but Intel has announced that it’s taken its silicon technology even further into the realms of the infinitesimal today, as the company has just demonstrated the world’s first 32nm processors and announced massive plans for the technology.

The company plans to spend a whopping $7 billion US over the next two years on building the four 32nm fabrication plants, creating 7,000 high-skill jobs in the US. One is already up and running in Oregon, where another plant is scheduled to be running by the end of 2009. Meanwhile, two further fabs will be built in Arizona and New Mexico in 2010.

The 32nm processors are based on the same materials used in Intel’s 45nm chips, using a high-k gate dielectric and a metal gate, as opposed to the old SiO2 dielectric and polysilicon gate used in Intel’s previous 65nm chips. However, Intel was keen to point out that it’s now refined the high-k + metal gate technology, which the company says is now in its second generation.

The refinements include a reduction in the oxide thickness of the high-k dielectric from 1.0nm on a 45nm chip to 0.9nm on a 32nm chip, while the gate length has squeezed down from 35nm to 30nm. As a result of this Intel says that it’s seen performance improvements of over 22 per cent from the new transistors. The company also claims that the second generation high-k + metal gate technology has reduced the source-to-drain leakage even further than the 45nm-generation technology, meaning that the transistors require less power to switch on and off.

Interestingly, Intel also says that the 32nm chips will be made using immersion lithography on ‘critical layers’, meaning that a refractive fluid will fill the gap between the lens and the wafer during the fabrication process. AMD is already using immersion lithography to make its 45nm CPUs, but Intel has so far used dry lithography on its 45nm CPUs.

Commenting on the manufacturing facilities, Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini said that the factories would "produce the most advanced computing technology in the world." He added that "the chips they produce will become the basic building blocks of the digital world, generating economic returns far beyond our industry."

Intel says that its first 32nm chips will be ready for production in the fourth quarter of this year, and has announced a number of new products that will be based on the technology.

Got a thought on the announcement? Discuss in the forums.

HP document disclosure vulnerability

2009-02-11T13:57:00.009-08:00
You might be sure that your PC is locked down against attacking crackers, but how often do you update your printer's firmware? If you're a user of HP devices, the answer may well be “not often enough."

According to an article by The Register's John Leyden yesterday, HP is warning customers that certain models of laser printers are vulnerable to a remote exploit which can allow access to the internal settings – including the ability to view and download copies of previously printed files. While the vulnerability isn't likely to result in an opening for further attacks against an internal network, the privacy implications push the severity up a notch.

The affected models – all network capable – are the HP LaserJet 2410, 2420, 2430, 4250, 4350, 9040, and 9050; the HP Color [sic] LaserJet 4730MFP, and 9500MFP; and the HP 9200C Digital Sender. If you – or, more realistically, your company – uses any of these models it would be a good idea to snag an updated firmware which addresses the issue.

The vulnerability – assigned the ID CVE-2008-4419 in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project is thought to be mitigated by standard border protections, but still represents a potentially troublesome security hole – made worse by the fact that most security audits gloss over embedded systems such as printers.

HP has declined to comment on the issue, apart from warning customers that the patch information available as part of its security bulletin should "be acted upon as soon as possible" by customers with affected devices.

Rushing to patch your personal printer before the crackers get their hands on your printouts, or are you hoping to get a sneak peek at what the CEO's been printing out of office hours? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Asus to launch mATX Republic of Gamers Gene mobos

2009-02-11T13:57:00.007-08:00
We have learned that Asus will launch the "Gene" series - the company's latest addition to its Republic of Gamer (RoG) family of motherboards - in a few weeks time.

Unlike all current Republic of Gamer motherboards, the Gene series will use the micro ATX form factor and fit below Formula and Extreme, which currently signify DDR2 and DDR3 respectively. We have also heard murmurs that these labels are likely to change in the future, though.

First to emerge is the Rampage II Gene (pictured below) which will be predominantly designed for LAN gamers and extreme overclockers living in particularly small apartments. This Core i7 motherboard will directly target the new breed of mini-boards that have generated considerable interest from the likes of other manufacturers, such as DFI's JR series.

It will feature both SLI and CrossFire support, as well as two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, one x4 slot and one PCI 2.2 slot. It will still feature six DIMMs, software driven X-Fi sound from ADI and also includes current RoG features like TweakIT; this will now be configurable from the keyboard instead of just from directly on the motherboard - making it far easier to access OC settings on the fly.

The general RoG features in the current Rampage II Extreme are closely mirrored on the Gene series, although we have had hints that there are some changes in design.

Sadly, for those thinking smaller equals cheaper, you'll have to think again. The Asus Republic of Gamers series is a premium product and it will certainly be over $200 in the US when it hits retail. However, for a Core i7 extreme overclocking board, some might not think that's an issue.

Let us know your thoughts on this move in the forums.

Dead Rising 2 announced

2009-02-11T13:57:00.005-08:00
Capcom has unveiled the much anticipated sequel to Dead Rising recently and has impressed fans and proved its commitment to the PC Gaming Alliance by confirming a PC version of the game.

Dead Rising 2 will continue the major themes of the first Xbox 360 exclusive, those being zombies, chainsaws and the combination of the above.

The story for the sequel though will move on and away from that of the first game, this time casting players as a totally new character who has become trapped in a Las Vegas casino as the zombie infection starts to spread out of control.

The change in plot brings with it a number of gameplay alterations too, notably removing the photography objectives that were integral to Frank West's story in the first game. Replacing that though seems to be a greater focus on vehicular zombie killings, with a a recent trailer showing the game to feature motorbikes and...hamster balls?

There's still no release date listed for the game on any platform, so we unfortunately don't know whether the PC version of the game will be released later than the console versions (which does seem likely) or not.

Could Dead Rising 2 be a PC hit, or has that niche been filled by the likes of Left 4 Dead? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

2009-02-11T13:57:00.003-08:00
AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

AMD is measuring ACP with "typical data centre workloads" - which means it's designed for Opteron CPUs predominantly. We can accept this probably a good thing for servers and high power data centres where electricity and cooling bills can be rather large. But it's clear that anyone taking the figures still needs to grab a fist full of salt: are AMD's methods of measurement applicable to your environment and workloads? And worse yet - trying to work out whether you want Intel, AMD, IBM or whatever else and having only a marketing number, opposed to a scientific one, doesn't really help anybody.

AMD also claims it "provide[s] TDPs for system designers who need to know what worst-case thermal limits to use when designing a system, which is of course a practical application of that metric."

Now, are we talking worst case thermal loads for short bursts or hours at a time? For example, for years now Intel has used a "typical" TDP rather than TDP-Max because, again, it looks better on paper.

We were curious how far its ACP rating was being pushed so we asked AMD, who confirmed that was limited to server products only - desktop and notebook parts are not included. The problem this industry has is there's no official, quantifiable rating system so if AMD chooses to try and suggest something new for its own product, even if there is some technical reasoning behind it to aid certain customers, there will be an inevitable claim that it's a marketing push - especially if the numbers are conveniently lower.

What Nigel Dessau says is right - there's direct no way to compare the two without knowing that they are measured identically, however is AMD effectively forced to use the TDP nomenclature just because "that's how it's always been" or is one/are both companies simply playing hard and fast with those three letters in whatever way it suits them? Does an arbitrary TDP value even matter as long as the CPUs continually strive for performance efficiency, the motherboards support everything thrown at them and they keep making CPU coolers big enough? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Kaspersky suffers database crack

2009-02-11T13:57:00.001-08:00
A cracker by the name of “unu” has claimed that the website of anti-virus vendor Kaspersky is wide open to attack from SQL injection – and that it's possible to get a complete copy of the site's database containing personal information on the company and its customers.

As reported by The Register on Sunday, the digital miscreant – who posted the results of his attack to website Hackers Blog – the claim is that a simple manipulation of the URL on the usa.kaspersky.com domain allowed for complete access to the back-end database.

With screenshots to back up his claims, it certainly looks like Kaspersky might have an embarrassing failure to secure its website – made worse by the fact that the company offers a range of security products designed to detect and prevent this sort of intrusion on their customers' servers.

The data at risk includes user information for customers of Kaspersky, details on the company's financials including lists of on-line sales, all support tickets registered on the system – both internal and external – and a list of every activation code the company has ever issued for its products. However, it is not thought that customer's financial data – including credit card details – is stored on the same system.

The flaw is made doubly urgent as it is possible – although not yet confirmed – that a cracker using the information posted on the Hackers Blog site could plant malware in Kaspersky's website: IBM's chief security strategist Gunter Ollman worries that "this type of critical flaw could probably be used to usurp legitimate purchases and renewals of [Kaspersky's] products – which could include the linking to malicious and backdoored versions of their software."

Kaspersky has yet to issue a statement on the claimed attack, except to say that it would be looking in to the issue as a matter of urgency.

Is this the worst possible advert for the efficacy of Kaspersky's security solutions, or does it simply reveal an embarrassing lack of routine security maintenance at the firm? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

OLPC to open-source hardware

2009-02-09T19:08:00.089-08:00
If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

Negroponte claims that netbook manufacturers "didn't copy the right things from us, but they exist" and that his XO laptop represents the proto-netbook – which his group "had to build [...] because no one else would do it."

With slow sales for the OLPC's first product – the XO laptop for developing countries – and larger manufacturers rapidly reducing the cost of their netbooks thanks to far higher economies of scale, the non-profit group has been in financial doldrums for some time, culminating in the lay offs that saw half the workforce leave the company at the start of this year.

Negroponte is convinced that the OLPC project can live on, however, even if purely as an inspiration to others – as Gizmodo reports the man himself saying, "to go from upper case to lower case" and to "build something that everyone copies."

While the XO laptop has a range of impressive functionality tailored to its target market of children in developing countries – such as the option of yo-yo power supply which is capable of generating power away from an electrical grid, and a transreflective screen that can be read in full daylight – the actual hardware has already been surpassed by commercial netbooks. That said, I certainly wouldn't complain if Asus or Samsung were to decide to release a dust proof, splash proof netbook I can use outdoors – especially if the price hits anywhere near the original target of $100. This, however, all depends on companies actually taking Negroponte up on his offer.

Do you believe that the commercial marketplace could take the OLPC idea and run with it – producing an ultra-netbook that you wouldn't be scared to use outdoors – or has the XO laptop had its day already? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

OLPC to open-source hardware

2009-02-09T19:08:00.087-08:00
If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

Negroponte claims that netbook manufacturers "didn't copy the right things from us, but they exist" and that his XO laptop represents the proto-netbook – which his group "had to build [...] because no one else would do it."

With slow sales for the OLPC's first product – the XO laptop for developing countries – and larger manufacturers rapidly reducing the cost of their netbooks thanks to far higher economies of scale, the non-profit group has been in financial doldrums for some time, culminating in the lay offs that saw half the workforce leave the company at the start of this year.

Negroponte is convinced that the OLPC project can live on, however, even if purely as an inspiration to others – as Gizmodo reports the man himself saying, "to go from upper case to lower case" and to "build something that everyone copies."

While the XO laptop has a range of impressive functionality tailored to its target market of children in developing countries – such as the option of yo-yo power supply which is capable of generating power away from an electrical grid, and a transreflective screen that can be read in full daylight – the actual hardware has already been surpassed by commercial netbooks. That said, I certainly wouldn't complain if Asus or Samsung were to decide to release a dust proof, splash proof netbook I can use outdoors – especially if the price hits anywhere near the original target of $100. This, however, all depends on companies actually taking Negroponte up on his offer.

Do you believe that the commercial marketplace could take the OLPC idea and run with it – producing an ultra-netbook that you wouldn't be scared to use outdoors – or has the XO laptop had its day already? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

2009-02-09T19:08:00.085-08:00
After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Many were surprised that the minority browser, often considered one of the fastest and most standards-compliant around, scored so poorly in the benchmarks based around the SunSpider JavaScript tests – especially when the results showed it taking nearly three times as long as its nearest competitor, and only being beaten to last place by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The good news is that the poor performance should be fully resolved by launch, with Opera boasting that the new engine will run JavaScript around two and a half times as fast as Futhark – bringing the speed in line with competing next-generation browsers, and leaving Internet Explorer 8 all on its own as the slowest performer by far.

In a post on Opera's blog, programmer Lars Erik Bolstad claimed that the company has "taken on the challenge to once again develop the fastest [JavaScript] engine on the market." With a variety of optimisations under its belt – including native code generation capabilities, register-based bytecodes replacing Futhark's stack-based set, and automatic object classification – Carakan is looking good, but the Bolstad warns that the code "is not yet ready for full-scale testing," citing some compatibility problems with the native code generation system.

The potential for even greater speed boosts is there: without the native code generation system, the JavaScript performance is boosted by around two and a half times; when the system is able to be used it shows an improvement of between five and fifty times when compared to Futhark. Now that's performance worth boasting about.

We're unlikely to see Carakan before the launch of Opera 10, but it certainly makes the next release one to watch – and should have Firefox, Safari, and Chrome worried.

How important is JavaScript performance to you? Would you consider switching browsers just to get a speed boost when browing script-heavy sites, or is functionality more vital than raw speed? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

OLPC to open-source hardware

2009-02-09T19:08:00.083-08:00
If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

Negroponte claims that netbook manufacturers "didn't copy the right things from us, but they exist" and that his XO laptop represents the proto-netbook – which his group "had to build [...] because no one else would do it."

With slow sales for the OLPC's first product – the XO laptop for developing countries – and larger manufacturers rapidly reducing the cost of their netbooks thanks to far higher economies of scale, the non-profit group has been in financial doldrums for some time, culminating in the lay offs that saw half the workforce leave the company at the start of this year.

Negroponte is convinced that the OLPC project can live on, however, even if purely as an inspiration to others – as Gizmodo reports the man himself saying, "to go from upper case to lower case" and to "build something that everyone copies."

While the XO laptop has a range of impressive functionality tailored to its target market of children in developing countries – such as the option of yo-yo power supply which is capable of generating power away from an electrical grid, and a transreflective screen that can be read in full daylight – the actual hardware has already been surpassed by commercial netbooks. That said, I certainly wouldn't complain if Asus or Samsung were to decide to release a dust proof, splash proof netbook I can use outdoors – especially if the price hits anywhere near the original target of $100. This, however, all depends on companies actually taking Negroponte up on his offer.

Do you believe that the commercial marketplace could take the OLPC idea and run with it – producing an ultra-netbook that you wouldn't be scared to use outdoors – or has the XO laptop had its day already? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.081-08:00
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent."

Unlike the UK, where we have a well regulated ratings system which, if not adhered to, can result in hefty fines for retailers, the US doesn't have a solid ratings system for game sales.

It's been a hot topic for years because violent games are constitutionally protected, meaning in some states a six year old could walk into their local game store and purchase GTA IV with no questions asked.

The lack of action from the government has led a number of states to take matters into their own hands and they have attempted to outlaw sales of games to minors based on scientific research conducted by psychologists.

Ferguson's revelation is pretty damning in that respect, but he didn't stop there - he revealed exactly how some of these studies have been carried out. He noted that existing studies have tested a subject's willingness to annoy others with loud bursts of noise after gameplay as an example of aggression - a far cry from the 'copycat' school shootings and other violent outbursts naysayers have tried to pin on violent games.

"The sad answer is it's really hard to measure aggression in the lab. We really don't have any real good measures of aggression," he said. "We can't have kids knifing each other or punching or beating each other up, of course. So we have that ethical constraint on one hand, and is it possible to create an aggression measure that functions well and is valid? I haven't seen one yet."

Even if Ferguson's revelations are true, there's still one question that remains - should minors be able to purchase violent games designed for adults? Tell us in the forums.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

2009-02-09T19:08:00.079-08:00
After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Many were surprised that the minority browser, often considered one of the fastest and most standards-compliant around, scored so poorly in the benchmarks based around the SunSpider JavaScript tests – especially when the results showed it taking nearly three times as long as its nearest competitor, and only being beaten to last place by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The good news is that the poor performance should be fully resolved by launch, with Opera boasting that the new engine will run JavaScript around two and a half times as fast as Futhark – bringing the speed in line with competing next-generation browsers, and leaving Internet Explorer 8 all on its own as the slowest performer by far.

In a post on Opera's blog, programmer Lars Erik Bolstad claimed that the company has "taken on the challenge to once again develop the fastest [JavaScript] engine on the market." With a variety of optimisations under its belt – including native code generation capabilities, register-based bytecodes replacing Futhark's stack-based set, and automatic object classification – Carakan is looking good, but the Bolstad warns that the code "is not yet ready for full-scale testing," citing some compatibility problems with the native code generation system.

The potential for even greater speed boosts is there: without the native code generation system, the JavaScript performance is boosted by around two and a half times; when the system is able to be used it shows an improvement of between five and fifty times when compared to Futhark. Now that's performance worth boasting about.

We're unlikely to see Carakan before the launch of Opera 10, but it certainly makes the next release one to watch – and should have Firefox, Safari, and Chrome worried.

How important is JavaScript performance to you? Would you consider switching browsers just to get a speed boost when browing script-heavy sites, or is functionality more vital than raw speed? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

2009-02-09T19:08:00.077-08:00
The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

Currently, Apple doesn't allow third party software to run as a background task – instead requiring each application to fully quit when a different task is launched. While this keeps memory clear and the OS ticking over nicely, the restriction does make the development of software such as instant messaging systems somewhat of a challenge. “Push Notification” was Apple's solution to this problem: a system by which an application could be alerted even if they are not currently active. Despite being announced back in June, the functionality has not yet made it into any officially released firmware for the iPhone or iPod Touch – with Steve Jobs claimed to have described things as "running a bit late."

While it could well be that Apple is holding the functionality back from release until it's absolutely sure it's not going to cause any problems with the platform, there are hints that the company will – either instead of or to complement the push notification system – allow a small number of user selectable programs to run as background tasks, remaining active even when another app has focus. If this proves true, it opens the iPhone and iPod Touch platform up for some exciting new software developments – but could be restricted to just one or two applications at a time due to limited memory capacity in the hardware. This is likely something that Apple will be addressing in the next revision of the hardware, should the restriction on running tasks truly be lifted.

If the restrictions are lifted - and background tasks are finally allowed - can you think of a killer app that the platform is missing? Tempted to look into iPhone software development a bit more, or is the platform still to restrictive even with true multitasking? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

2009-02-09T19:08:00.075-08:00
After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Many were surprised that the minority browser, often considered one of the fastest and most standards-compliant around, scored so poorly in the benchmarks based around the SunSpider JavaScript tests – especially when the results showed it taking nearly three times as long as its nearest competitor, and only being beaten to last place by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The good news is that the poor performance should be fully resolved by launch, with Opera boasting that the new engine will run JavaScript around two and a half times as fast as Futhark – bringing the speed in line with competing next-generation browsers, and leaving Internet Explorer 8 all on its own as the slowest performer by far.

In a post on Opera's blog, programmer Lars Erik Bolstad claimed that the company has "taken on the challenge to once again develop the fastest [JavaScript] engine on the market." With a variety of optimisations under its belt – including native code generation capabilities, register-based bytecodes replacing Futhark's stack-based set, and automatic object classification – Carakan is looking good, but the Bolstad warns that the code "is not yet ready for full-scale testing," citing some compatibility problems with the native code generation system.

The potential for even greater speed boosts is there: without the native code generation system, the JavaScript performance is boosted by around two and a half times; when the system is able to be used it shows an improvement of between five and fifty times when compared to Futhark. Now that's performance worth boasting about.

We're unlikely to see Carakan before the launch of Opera 10, but it certainly makes the next release one to watch – and should have Firefox, Safari, and Chrome worried.

How important is JavaScript performance to you? Would you consider switching browsers just to get a speed boost when browing script-heavy sites, or is functionality more vital than raw speed? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

2009-02-09T19:08:00.073-08:00
The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

Currently, Apple doesn't allow third party software to run as a background task – instead requiring each application to fully quit when a different task is launched. While this keeps memory clear and the OS ticking over nicely, the restriction does make the development of software such as instant messaging systems somewhat of a challenge. “Push Notification” was Apple's solution to this problem: a system by which an application could be alerted even if they are not currently active. Despite being announced back in June, the functionality has not yet made it into any officially released firmware for the iPhone or iPod Touch – with Steve Jobs claimed to have described things as "running a bit late."

While it could well be that Apple is holding the functionality back from release until it's absolutely sure it's not going to cause any problems with the platform, there are hints that the company will – either instead of or to complement the push notification system – allow a small number of user selectable programs to run as background tasks, remaining active even when another app has focus. If this proves true, it opens the iPhone and iPod Touch platform up for some exciting new software developments – but could be restricted to just one or two applications at a time due to limited memory capacity in the hardware. This is likely something that Apple will be addressing in the next revision of the hardware, should the restriction on running tasks truly be lifted.

If the restrictions are lifted - and background tasks are finally allowed - can you think of a killer app that the platform is missing? Tempted to look into iPhone software development a bit more, or is the platform still to restrictive even with true multitasking? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

2009-02-09T19:08:00.071-08:00
After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Many were surprised that the minority browser, often considered one of the fastest and most standards-compliant around, scored so poorly in the benchmarks based around the SunSpider JavaScript tests – especially when the results showed it taking nearly three times as long as its nearest competitor, and only being beaten to last place by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The good news is that the poor performance should be fully resolved by launch, with Opera boasting that the new engine will run JavaScript around two and a half times as fast as Futhark – bringing the speed in line with competing next-generation browsers, and leaving Internet Explorer 8 all on its own as the slowest performer by far.

In a post on Opera's blog, programmer Lars Erik Bolstad claimed that the company has "taken on the challenge to once again develop the fastest [JavaScript] engine on the market." With a variety of optimisations under its belt – including native code generation capabilities, register-based bytecodes replacing Futhark's stack-based set, and automatic object classification – Carakan is looking good, but the Bolstad warns that the code "is not yet ready for full-scale testing," citing some compatibility problems with the native code generation system.

The potential for even greater speed boosts is there: without the native code generation system, the JavaScript performance is boosted by around two and a half times; when the system is able to be used it shows an improvement of between five and fifty times when compared to Futhark. Now that's performance worth boasting about.

We're unlikely to see Carakan before the launch of Opera 10, but it certainly makes the next release one to watch – and should have Firefox, Safari, and Chrome worried.

How important is JavaScript performance to you? Would you consider switching browsers just to get a speed boost when browing script-heavy sites, or is functionality more vital than raw speed? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

OLPC to open-source hardware

2009-02-09T19:08:00.069-08:00
If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

Negroponte claims that netbook manufacturers "didn't copy the right things from us, but they exist" and that his XO laptop represents the proto-netbook – which his group "had to build [...] because no one else would do it."

With slow sales for the OLPC's first product – the XO laptop for developing countries – and larger manufacturers rapidly reducing the cost of their netbooks thanks to far higher economies of scale, the non-profit group has been in financial doldrums for some time, culminating in the lay offs that saw half the workforce leave the company at the start of this year.

Negroponte is convinced that the OLPC project can live on, however, even if purely as an inspiration to others – as Gizmodo reports the man himself saying, "to go from upper case to lower case" and to "build something that everyone copies."

While the XO laptop has a range of impressive functionality tailored to its target market of children in developing countries – such as the option of yo-yo power supply which is capable of generating power away from an electrical grid, and a transreflective screen that can be read in full daylight – the actual hardware has already been surpassed by commercial netbooks. That said, I certainly wouldn't complain if Asus or Samsung were to decide to release a dust proof, splash proof netbook I can use outdoors – especially if the price hits anywhere near the original target of $100. This, however, all depends on companies actually taking Negroponte up on his offer.

Do you believe that the commercial marketplace could take the OLPC idea and run with it – producing an ultra-netbook that you wouldn't be scared to use outdoors – or has the XO laptop had its day already? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.067-08:00
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent."

Unlike the UK, where we have a well regulated ratings system which, if not adhered to, can result in hefty fines for retailers, the US doesn't have a solid ratings system for game sales.

It's been a hot topic for years because violent games are constitutionally protected, meaning in some states a six year old could walk into their local game store and purchase GTA IV with no questions asked.

The lack of action from the government has led a number of states to take matters into their own hands and they have attempted to outlaw sales of games to minors based on scientific research conducted by psychologists.

Ferguson's revelation is pretty damning in that respect, but he didn't stop there - he revealed exactly how some of these studies have been carried out. He noted that existing studies have tested a subject's willingness to annoy others with loud bursts of noise after gameplay as an example of aggression - a far cry from the 'copycat' school shootings and other violent outbursts naysayers have tried to pin on violent games.

"The sad answer is it's really hard to measure aggression in the lab. We really don't have any real good measures of aggression," he said. "We can't have kids knifing each other or punching or beating each other up, of course. So we have that ethical constraint on one hand, and is it possible to create an aggression measure that functions well and is valid? I haven't seen one yet."

Even if Ferguson's revelations are true, there's still one question that remains - should minors be able to purchase violent games designed for adults? Tell us in the forums.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

2009-02-09T19:08:00.065-08:00
The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

Currently, Apple doesn't allow third party software to run as a background task – instead requiring each application to fully quit when a different task is launched. While this keeps memory clear and the OS ticking over nicely, the restriction does make the development of software such as instant messaging systems somewhat of a challenge. “Push Notification” was Apple's solution to this problem: a system by which an application could be alerted even if they are not currently active. Despite being announced back in June, the functionality has not yet made it into any officially released firmware for the iPhone or iPod Touch – with Steve Jobs claimed to have described things as "running a bit late."

While it could well be that Apple is holding the functionality back from release until it's absolutely sure it's not going to cause any problems with the platform, there are hints that the company will – either instead of or to complement the push notification system – allow a small number of user selectable programs to run as background tasks, remaining active even when another app has focus. If this proves true, it opens the iPhone and iPod Touch platform up for some exciting new software developments – but could be restricted to just one or two applications at a time due to limited memory capacity in the hardware. This is likely something that Apple will be addressing in the next revision of the hardware, should the restriction on running tasks truly be lifted.

If the restrictions are lifted - and background tasks are finally allowed - can you think of a killer app that the platform is missing? Tempted to look into iPhone software development a bit more, or is the platform still to restrictive even with true multitasking? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.063-08:00
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent."

Unlike the UK, where we have a well regulated ratings system which, if not adhered to, can result in hefty fines for retailers, the US doesn't have a solid ratings system for game sales.

It's been a hot topic for years because violent games are constitutionally protected, meaning in some states a six year old could walk into their local game store and purchase GTA IV with no questions asked.

The lack of action from the government has led a number of states to take matters into their own hands and they have attempted to outlaw sales of games to minors based on scientific research conducted by psychologists.

Ferguson's revelation is pretty damning in that respect, but he didn't stop there - he revealed exactly how some of these studies have been carried out. He noted that existing studies have tested a subject's willingness to annoy others with loud bursts of noise after gameplay as an example of aggression - a far cry from the 'copycat' school shootings and other violent outbursts naysayers have tried to pin on violent games.

"The sad answer is it's really hard to measure aggression in the lab. We really don't have any real good measures of aggression," he said. "We can't have kids knifing each other or punching or beating each other up, of course. So we have that ethical constraint on one hand, and is it possible to create an aggression measure that functions well and is valid? I haven't seen one yet."

Even if Ferguson's revelations are true, there's still one question that remains - should minors be able to purchase violent games designed for adults? Tell us in the forums.

Gears of War PC problems fixed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.061-08:00
Epic has released a new patch which should fix all of the certification problems which had been plaguing the PC version of Gears of War, according to a quick announcement on Microsoft's official game page.

The certification problem itself began a while back when anyone who attempted to play Gears of War PC was confronted with a message that said the digital certificate for the game has expired, making the game unplayable.

Epic didn't seem all that quick to solve the problem at first and players instead had to resort to altering their system clocks to a time before the certificate expired, which obviously wasn't an ideal situation.

Now though Epic has released a patch for the game - technically a mandatory update - that players can grab to solve this particular problem. Once applied, the update should allow access as usual to the game, renewed certificate and all!

That said though - how many people are still playing Gears of War PC is worth considering. It's not as if the PC port of the game was particularly astounding - but you can check out full Gears of War PC review for details, compared to our Gears of War review on consoles.

Have you been affected by the expiration of the certificate, or do you just want to moan about Epic for other reasons? Either way, head to the forums and let us know your thoughts.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.059-08:00
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent."

Unlike the UK, where we have a well regulated ratings system which, if not adhered to, can result in hefty fines for retailers, the US doesn't have a solid ratings system for game sales.

It's been a hot topic for years because violent games are constitutionally protected, meaning in some states a six year old could walk into their local game store and purchase GTA IV with no questions asked.

The lack of action from the government has led a number of states to take matters into their own hands and they have attempted to outlaw sales of games to minors based on scientific research conducted by psychologists.

Ferguson's revelation is pretty damning in that respect, but he didn't stop there - he revealed exactly how some of these studies have been carried out. He noted that existing studies have tested a subject's willingness to annoy others with loud bursts of noise after gameplay as an example of aggression - a far cry from the 'copycat' school shootings and other violent outbursts naysayers have tried to pin on violent games.

"The sad answer is it's really hard to measure aggression in the lab. We really don't have any real good measures of aggression," he said. "We can't have kids knifing each other or punching or beating each other up, of course. So we have that ethical constraint on one hand, and is it possible to create an aggression measure that functions well and is valid? I haven't seen one yet."

Even if Ferguson's revelations are true, there's still one question that remains - should minors be able to purchase violent games designed for adults? Tell us in the forums.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

2009-02-09T19:08:00.057-08:00
After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Many were surprised that the minority browser, often considered one of the fastest and most standards-compliant around, scored so poorly in the benchmarks based around the SunSpider JavaScript tests – especially when the results showed it taking nearly three times as long as its nearest competitor, and only being beaten to last place by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The good news is that the poor performance should be fully resolved by launch, with Opera boasting that the new engine will run JavaScript around two and a half times as fast as Futhark – bringing the speed in line with competing next-generation browsers, and leaving Internet Explorer 8 all on its own as the slowest performer by far.

In a post on Opera's blog, programmer Lars Erik Bolstad claimed that the company has "taken on the challenge to once again develop the fastest [JavaScript] engine on the market." With a variety of optimisations under its belt – including native code generation capabilities, register-based bytecodes replacing Futhark's stack-based set, and automatic object classification – Carakan is looking good, but the Bolstad warns that the code "is not yet ready for full-scale testing," citing some compatibility problems with the native code generation system.

The potential for even greater speed boosts is there: without the native code generation system, the JavaScript performance is boosted by around two and a half times; when the system is able to be used it shows an improvement of between five and fifty times when compared to Futhark. Now that's performance worth boasting about.

We're unlikely to see Carakan before the launch of Opera 10, but it certainly makes the next release one to watch – and should have Firefox, Safari, and Chrome worried.

How important is JavaScript performance to you? Would you consider switching browsers just to get a speed boost when browing script-heavy sites, or is functionality more vital than raw speed? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Bethesda delays Fallout 3 DLC

2009-02-09T19:08:00.055-08:00
Bethesda has formally announced delays to the planned release of the next Fallout 3 expansions, dubbed The Pitt and Broken Steel.

The announcement, made via Gamespot, pushes the release back for both pieces of DLC by one month.

The Pitt, which is focused around a ruined factory in Pittsburgh, is now going to be released in March, while Broken Steel will be available in April. Broken Steel is the really interesting one in our eyes - it allows players to continue playing Fallout 3 after the end of the game and also increases the level cap by 10.

The first of the three DLC packs has already been released, though we didn't actually get around to playing it - check out Joe's column for details about why.

No specific reason has been given for the delays, but a likely cause is that Bethesda is funnelling resources into its newly announced iPhone game, which Todd Howard unveiled at New York Comic Con. What the mobile game will be though is still a mystery.

If you want to know more about Fallout 3 then you can check out our full Fallout 3 PC review for details, and be sure to drop your thoughts on the DLC in the forums.

Gears of War PC problems fixed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.053-08:00
Epic has released a new patch which should fix all of the certification problems which had been plaguing the PC version of Gears of War, according to a quick announcement on Microsoft's official game page.

The certification problem itself began a while back when anyone who attempted to play Gears of War PC was confronted with a message that said the digital certificate for the game has expired, making the game unplayable.

Epic didn't seem all that quick to solve the problem at first and players instead had to resort to altering their system clocks to a time before the certificate expired, which obviously wasn't an ideal situation.

Now though Epic has released a patch for the game - technically a mandatory update - that players can grab to solve this particular problem. Once applied, the update should allow access as usual to the game, renewed certificate and all!

That said though - how many people are still playing Gears of War PC is worth considering. It's not as if the PC port of the game was particularly astounding - but you can check out full Gears of War PC review for details, compared to our Gears of War review on consoles.

Have you been affected by the expiration of the certificate, or do you just want to moan about Epic for other reasons? Either way, head to the forums and let us know your thoughts.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.051-08:00
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent."

Unlike the UK, where we have a well regulated ratings system which, if not adhered to, can result in hefty fines for retailers, the US doesn't have a solid ratings system for game sales.

It's been a hot topic for years because violent games are constitutionally protected, meaning in some states a six year old could walk into their local game store and purchase GTA IV with no questions asked.

The lack of action from the government has led a number of states to take matters into their own hands and they have attempted to outlaw sales of games to minors based on scientific research conducted by psychologists.

Ferguson's revelation is pretty damning in that respect, but he didn't stop there - he revealed exactly how some of these studies have been carried out. He noted that existing studies have tested a subject's willingness to annoy others with loud bursts of noise after gameplay as an example of aggression - a far cry from the 'copycat' school shootings and other violent outbursts naysayers have tried to pin on violent games.

"The sad answer is it's really hard to measure aggression in the lab. We really don't have any real good measures of aggression," he said. "We can't have kids knifing each other or punching or beating each other up, of course. So we have that ethical constraint on one hand, and is it possible to create an aggression measure that functions well and is valid? I haven't seen one yet."

Even if Ferguson's revelations are true, there's still one question that remains - should minors be able to purchase violent games designed for adults? Tell us in the forums.

Gears of War PC problems fixed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.049-08:00
Epic has released a new patch which should fix all of the certification problems which had been plaguing the PC version of Gears of War, according to a quick announcement on Microsoft's official game page.

The certification problem itself began a while back when anyone who attempted to play Gears of War PC was confronted with a message that said the digital certificate for the game has expired, making the game unplayable.

Epic didn't seem all that quick to solve the problem at first and players instead had to resort to altering their system clocks to a time before the certificate expired, which obviously wasn't an ideal situation.

Now though Epic has released a patch for the game - technically a mandatory update - that players can grab to solve this particular problem. Once applied, the update should allow access as usual to the game, renewed certificate and all!

That said though - how many people are still playing Gears of War PC is worth considering. It's not as if the PC port of the game was particularly astounding - but you can check out full Gears of War PC review for details, compared to our Gears of War review on consoles.

Have you been affected by the expiration of the certificate, or do you just want to moan about Epic for other reasons? Either way, head to the forums and let us know your thoughts.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

2009-02-09T19:08:00.047-08:00
The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

Currently, Apple doesn't allow third party software to run as a background task – instead requiring each application to fully quit when a different task is launched. While this keeps memory clear and the OS ticking over nicely, the restriction does make the development of software such as instant messaging systems somewhat of a challenge. “Push Notification” was Apple's solution to this problem: a system by which an application could be alerted even if they are not currently active. Despite being announced back in June, the functionality has not yet made it into any officially released firmware for the iPhone or iPod Touch – with Steve Jobs claimed to have described things as "running a bit late."

While it could well be that Apple is holding the functionality back from release until it's absolutely sure it's not going to cause any problems with the platform, there are hints that the company will – either instead of or to complement the push notification system – allow a small number of user selectable programs to run as background tasks, remaining active even when another app has focus. If this proves true, it opens the iPhone and iPod Touch platform up for some exciting new software developments – but could be restricted to just one or two applications at a time due to limited memory capacity in the hardware. This is likely something that Apple will be addressing in the next revision of the hardware, should the restriction on running tasks truly be lifted.

If the restrictions are lifted - and background tasks are finally allowed - can you think of a killer app that the platform is missing? Tempted to look into iPhone software development a bit more, or is the platform still to restrictive even with true multitasking? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Gears of War PC problems fixed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.045-08:00
Epic has released a new patch which should fix all of the certification problems which had been plaguing the PC version of Gears of War, according to a quick announcement on Microsoft's official game page.

The certification problem itself began a while back when anyone who attempted to play Gears of War PC was confronted with a message that said the digital certificate for the game has expired, making the game unplayable.

Epic didn't seem all that quick to solve the problem at first and players instead had to resort to altering their system clocks to a time before the certificate expired, which obviously wasn't an ideal situation.

Now though Epic has released a patch for the game - technically a mandatory update - that players can grab to solve this particular problem. Once applied, the update should allow access as usual to the game, renewed certificate and all!

That said though - how many people are still playing Gears of War PC is worth considering. It's not as if the PC port of the game was particularly astounding - but you can check out full Gears of War PC review for details, compared to our Gears of War review on consoles.

Have you been affected by the expiration of the certificate, or do you just want to moan about Epic for other reasons? Either way, head to the forums and let us know your thoughts.

Bethesda delays Fallout 3 DLC

2009-02-09T19:08:00.043-08:00
Bethesda has formally announced delays to the planned release of the next Fallout 3 expansions, dubbed The Pitt and Broken Steel.

The announcement, made via Gamespot, pushes the release back for both pieces of DLC by one month.

The Pitt, which is focused around a ruined factory in Pittsburgh, is now going to be released in March, while Broken Steel will be available in April. Broken Steel is the really interesting one in our eyes - it allows players to continue playing Fallout 3 after the end of the game and also increases the level cap by 10.

The first of the three DLC packs has already been released, though we didn't actually get around to playing it - check out Joe's column for details about why.

No specific reason has been given for the delays, but a likely cause is that Bethesda is funnelling resources into its newly announced iPhone game, which Todd Howard unveiled at New York Comic Con. What the mobile game will be though is still a mystery.

If you want to know more about Fallout 3 then you can check out our full Fallout 3 PC review for details, and be sure to drop your thoughts on the DLC in the forums.

Gears of War PC problems fixed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.041-08:00
Epic has released a new patch which should fix all of the certification problems which had been plaguing the PC version of Gears of War, according to a quick announcement on Microsoft's official game page.

The certification problem itself began a while back when anyone who attempted to play Gears of War PC was confronted with a message that said the digital certificate for the game has expired, making the game unplayable.

Epic didn't seem all that quick to solve the problem at first and players instead had to resort to altering their system clocks to a time before the certificate expired, which obviously wasn't an ideal situation.

Now though Epic has released a patch for the game - technically a mandatory update - that players can grab to solve this particular problem. Once applied, the update should allow access as usual to the game, renewed certificate and all!

That said though - how many people are still playing Gears of War PC is worth considering. It's not as if the PC port of the game was particularly astounding - but you can check out full Gears of War PC review for details, compared to our Gears of War review on consoles.

Have you been affected by the expiration of the certificate, or do you just want to moan about Epic for other reasons? Either way, head to the forums and let us know your thoughts.

Bethesda delays Fallout 3 DLC

2009-02-09T19:08:00.039-08:00
Bethesda has formally announced delays to the planned release of the next Fallout 3 expansions, dubbed The Pitt and Broken Steel.

The announcement, made via Gamespot, pushes the release back for both pieces of DLC by one month.

The Pitt, which is focused around a ruined factory in Pittsburgh, is now going to be released in March, while Broken Steel will be available in April. Broken Steel is the really interesting one in our eyes - it allows players to continue playing Fallout 3 after the end of the game and also increases the level cap by 10.

The first of the three DLC packs has already been released, though we didn't actually get around to playing it - check out Joe's column for details about why.

No specific reason has been given for the delays, but a likely cause is that Bethesda is funnelling resources into its newly announced iPhone game, which Todd Howard unveiled at New York Comic Con. What the mobile game will be though is still a mystery.

If you want to know more about Fallout 3 then you can check out our full Fallout 3 PC review for details, and be sure to drop your thoughts on the DLC in the forums.

Gears of War PC problems fixed

2009-02-09T19:08:00.037-08:00
Epic has released a new patch which should fix all of the certification problems which had been plaguing the PC version of Gears of War, according to a quick announcement on Microsoft's official game page.

The certification problem itself began a while back when anyone who attempted to play Gears of War PC was confronted with a message that said the digital certificate for the game has expired, making the game unplayable.

Epic didn't seem all that quick to solve the problem at first and players instead had to resort to altering their system clocks to a time before the certificate expired, which obviously wasn't an ideal situation.

Now though Epic has released a patch for the game - technically a mandatory update - that players can grab to solve this particular problem. Once applied, the update should allow access as usual to the game, renewed certificate and all!

That said though - how many people are still playing Gears of War PC is worth considering. It's not as if the PC port of the game was particularly astounding - but you can check out full Gears of War PC review for details, compared to our Gears of War review on consoles.

Have you been affected by the expiration of the certificate, or do you just want to moan about Epic for other reasons? Either way, head to the forums and let us know your thoughts.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.035-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Bethesda delays Fallout 3 DLC

2009-02-09T19:08:00.033-08:00
Bethesda has formally announced delays to the planned release of the next Fallout 3 expansions, dubbed The Pitt and Broken Steel.

The announcement, made via Gamespot, pushes the release back for both pieces of DLC by one month.

The Pitt, which is focused around a ruined factory in Pittsburgh, is now going to be released in March, while Broken Steel will be available in April. Broken Steel is the really interesting one in our eyes - it allows players to continue playing Fallout 3 after the end of the game and also increases the level cap by 10.

The first of the three DLC packs has already been released, though we didn't actually get around to playing it - check out Joe's column for details about why.

No specific reason has been given for the delays, but a likely cause is that Bethesda is funnelling resources into its newly announced iPhone game, which Todd Howard unveiled at New York Comic Con. What the mobile game will be though is still a mystery.

If you want to know more about Fallout 3 then you can check out our full Fallout 3 PC review for details, and be sure to drop your thoughts on the DLC in the forums.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.031-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Bethesda delays Fallout 3 DLC

2009-02-09T19:08:00.029-08:00
Bethesda has formally announced delays to the planned release of the next Fallout 3 expansions, dubbed The Pitt and Broken Steel.

The announcement, made via Gamespot, pushes the release back for both pieces of DLC by one month.

The Pitt, which is focused around a ruined factory in Pittsburgh, is now going to be released in March, while Broken Steel will be available in April. Broken Steel is the really interesting one in our eyes - it allows players to continue playing Fallout 3 after the end of the game and also increases the level cap by 10.

The first of the three DLC packs has already been released, though we didn't actually get around to playing it - check out Joe's column for details about why.

No specific reason has been given for the delays, but a likely cause is that Bethesda is funnelling resources into its newly announced iPhone game, which Todd Howard unveiled at New York Comic Con. What the mobile game will be though is still a mystery.

If you want to know more about Fallout 3 then you can check out our full Fallout 3 PC review for details, and be sure to drop your thoughts on the DLC in the forums.

Bethesda delays Fallout 3 DLC

2009-02-09T19:08:00.027-08:00
Bethesda has formally announced delays to the planned release of the next Fallout 3 expansions, dubbed The Pitt and Broken Steel.

The announcement, made via Gamespot, pushes the release back for both pieces of DLC by one month.

The Pitt, which is focused around a ruined factory in Pittsburgh, is now going to be released in March, while Broken Steel will be available in April. Broken Steel is the really interesting one in our eyes - it allows players to continue playing Fallout 3 after the end of the game and also increases the level cap by 10.

The first of the three DLC packs has already been released, though we didn't actually get around to playing it - check out Joe's column for details about why.

No specific reason has been given for the delays, but a likely cause is that Bethesda is funnelling resources into its newly announced iPhone game, which Todd Howard unveiled at New York Comic Con. What the mobile game will be though is still a mystery.

If you want to know more about Fallout 3 then you can check out our full Fallout 3 PC review for details, and be sure to drop your thoughts on the DLC in the forums.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.025-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Bethesda delays Fallout 3 DLC

2009-02-09T19:08:00.023-08:00
Bethesda has formally announced delays to the planned release of the next Fallout 3 expansions, dubbed The Pitt and Broken Steel.

The announcement, made via Gamespot, pushes the release back for both pieces of DLC by one month.

The Pitt, which is focused around a ruined factory in Pittsburgh, is now going to be released in March, while Broken Steel will be available in April. Broken Steel is the really interesting one in our eyes - it allows players to continue playing Fallout 3 after the end of the game and also increases the level cap by 10.

The first of the three DLC packs has already been released, though we didn't actually get around to playing it - check out Joe's column for details about why.

No specific reason has been given for the delays, but a likely cause is that Bethesda is funnelling resources into its newly announced iPhone game, which Todd Howard unveiled at New York Comic Con. What the mobile game will be though is still a mystery.

If you want to know more about Fallout 3 then you can check out our full Fallout 3 PC review for details, and be sure to drop your thoughts on the DLC in the forums.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.021-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.019-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.017-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs

2009-02-09T19:08:00.015-08:00
The credit crunch has claimed another scalp, with the news that tech giant Panasonic is looking to lose around five percent of its workforce following an increase in projected losses for the current financial year.

According to the New York Times the company will be looking to shed 15,000 jobs – half of which will be of workers based in Japan – as a result of losses of 380 billion yen (£2.85 billion) in the financial year leading up to March 31st, up from the 360 billion yen the company was hoping for.

The job losses, which represent five percent of the company's overall workforce, will be joined by the closure of a number of manufacturing sites – thirteen located in Japan and a further fourteen abroad.

The company has not announced any details on which divisions are being scaled back, but it is thought that the plants are manufacturers of 'discretionary' items such as TVs and data projectors - items many consumers will be putting off purchasing until the global economy picks up.

A statement from Panasonic blamed "the rapid appreciation of the yen" - which has made goods more expensive for other countries to buy, harming export sales to the US and Europe – along with "sluggish consumer spending worldwide and ever-intensified price competition."

Despite the gloomy financial outlook – and even gloomier prospects for those whose jobs are for the chop – Panasonic is still going ahead with its planned purchase of Sanyo, which is currently awaiting approval from regulators.

Do you hope that Panasonic is large enough to withstand such a large number of job losses and plant closures? Hoping that the company can stay afloat long enough for you to get your 50" plasma? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.013-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs

2009-02-09T19:08:00.011-08:00
The credit crunch has claimed another scalp, with the news that tech giant Panasonic is looking to lose around five percent of its workforce following an increase in projected losses for the current financial year.

According to the New York Times the company will be looking to shed 15,000 jobs – half of which will be of workers based in Japan – as a result of losses of 380 billion yen (£2.85 billion) in the financial year leading up to March 31st, up from the 360 billion yen the company was hoping for.

The job losses, which represent five percent of the company's overall workforce, will be joined by the closure of a number of manufacturing sites – thirteen located in Japan and a further fourteen abroad.

The company has not announced any details on which divisions are being scaled back, but it is thought that the plants are manufacturers of 'discretionary' items such as TVs and data projectors - items many consumers will be putting off purchasing until the global economy picks up.

A statement from Panasonic blamed "the rapid appreciation of the yen" - which has made goods more expensive for other countries to buy, harming export sales to the US and Europe – along with "sluggish consumer spending worldwide and ever-intensified price competition."

Despite the gloomy financial outlook – and even gloomier prospects for those whose jobs are for the chop – Panasonic is still going ahead with its planned purchase of Sanyo, which is currently awaiting approval from regulators.

Do you hope that Panasonic is large enough to withstand such a large number of job losses and plant closures? Hoping that the company can stay afloat long enough for you to get your 50" plasma? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

Far Cry 2 gets hardcore mode update

2009-02-09T19:08:00.009-08:00
Ubisoft has announced plans to release a new patch for Far Cry 2 that will add in a new game mode to the game at the request of the community.

"A lot of questions have been raised on the forums about a hardcore mode feature," said a Ubisoft spokesperson on the official forums.

"Today we are happy to confirm that you will be able to enjoy this new mode on all platforms with our next wave of patches."

The hardcore mode will affect the multiplayer side of the game primarily by the look of things, adding a new damage model that should give the game a more realistic feel, as well a method of tweaking the spawn times (though not rate) of players. All weapons will get increased damage and enemy names will now disappear when the grace period ends.

On top of this and in order to keep things simple, a new filter will be added to the server browser that will let players search for or de-list hardcore matches.

"We hope that you will like the changes our team has implemented to let you enjoy the game, and play it the way you want," finished the Ubi spokesperson.

You can check out our thoughts on the game in our full Far Cry 2 PC review, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.