EA “Spore” forum mod confirms Spore kill switch?

An Electronic Arts “Spore” forum moderator threatens to disable the entire game for a user’s simply having asked about SecuROM in EA’s forums. This would seem to confirm that Spore does in fact have a kill switch built in, which is something that the EA apologists have continually dismissed.
“SecuROM as [sic] been discussed and discussed [...]

Vista Not Playing Nice With FPS Games

Via SlashDot

Vista not playing nice with gamers

Some XP favorites crashing or crawling; fix wait could be lengthy

Windows Vista’s powerful new graphics engine may be one of its hallmark features, but it’s engendering complaints from a key segment of potential early adopters: hardcore gamers.

A small but significant number of games written for Windows XP either crash [...]

“Think Big” How would you fix Xbox live?

1up has some interesting news regarding XBox Live…

How Would You Fix XBL?
Microsoft soliciting ideas, feedback for future updates.

You don’t often hear corporations asking their consumers for suggestions, but Microsoft’s done it once before with Xbox Live and they’re doing it again. Andre Vrignaud of the Xbox Live Platform Strategy team is asking Xbox users to [...]

Good question: why doesn’t the Xbox 360 have its own browser?

joystiq answers a darned good question:

Good question: why doesn’t the Xbox 360 have its own browser?

We don’t want a complicated solution that requires an operating system (though, at any given time, we’ve got all kinds of computers on around the house). We just want to turn on the dang console and be able to browse [...]

NES Games on Your Browser

Virtual NES…

Here, you can play NES Games in your browser.

Using Java Applet Technology. All you need is Java 1.5.0 or higher.

Before you begin, please make sure you understand the controls. The controller at top will always remain there, for reference. We are not affiliated with Nintendo in any way. This is an emulator. It was [...]

Study: 64% of Online Gamers are Women

And more than half of nation’s total gamers play online.

You wouldn’t realize it while playing with most of the jerks that play Halo 2, but 64% of the nation’s 117 million online gamers are actually women, according to Nielsen Entertainment’s third annual Active Gamer Benchmark Study, released this morning.

The study’s announcement release doesn’t break down [...]

Free Appz: Free Software Magazine

Added to the PoliTech Reading List:

Free Software Magazine
Free Software Magazine is the free online magazine about free software. It is free to subscribe, free to download and free to read online. Please, feel free to read all of the issues, book reviews, newsletters, and blog entries. There are hundreds of articles online, so you are [...]

Fight DRM: Ten things you can do today

“If consumers even know there’s a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we’ve already failed” – Disney Executive.

Defeating DRM is all about awareness.

The direct actions that we have taken are all about this. Today we are asking you to let the people around you know that DRM is bad for our society. [...]

New technology could nip High Def DVD format war in the bud

If the Optical Drive manufacturers won’t (or can’t because of DRM) ship multi-format readers, the media manufacturers seem to have come up with a solution.

New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud

The format war around next generation DVDs may be over before it has begun, thanks to a breakthrough from a British media [...]

By Next Year You Could be Playing Games on a Microsoft PlayStation 360.

Sony … between exploding laptop batteries (that must now be replaced), the way late – way expensive – Blu-ray drive, the T.V and Monitor business in steady decline, Sony spyware and rootkits intentionally loaded on their music CDs, and a Sony Computer Entertainment president (Ken Kutaragi) who said about the PS3 that it’s a premium [...]

XBox360 HD-DVD: Stupid DRM tricks

One of the PoliTech Extropians just emailed me and is somewhat upset with the latest press releases regarding XBox 360 and the HD-DVD drive…

HD DVD will be 1080p only via VGA cable. Component cable limited to 1080i due to Effing DRM/copy protection!

Games will be 1080p, but why limit HD DVD especially since the Xbox does [...]

Microsoft offering free repairs for all 2005 Xbox 360s – Engadget

Engadget has even more good XBox 360 news.

Microsoft offering free repairs for all 2005 Xbox 360s

Those Redmond folks are sure on a good news streak.

After announcing 1080p upscaling and a delightfully low-priced HD DVD drive for their 360, they’re offering a helping hand to early adopters who haven’t had quite as much fun with the [...]

Xbox 360: Microsoft announces 1080p support

1080p is already available with projectors, plasma monitors, and LCD panels (though no CRT television monitors yet). The 1080p picture is far superior (to my eye anyway) to 1080i.
This is good news for the High Definition enthusiast.
As Kingdox commented on Joystiq
Very cool, I love it when stuff you buy gets more features added [...]

“Information Tech” Tops List of Most Stressful Jobs

Top 10 Most Stressful Professions
Work Stresses and Colleague Irritations, Defined

IT experts are more likely to suffer from stress than any other professional, according to the survey.

Four out of five IT consultants feel stressed before they even enter the workplace, in anticipation of another day juggling complaints, pressure from managers and daily targets.

And a quarter of [...]

This Guy is Seriously Talented

This is the best game console mod that I have ever seen … period.
From start…

To Finish…

Scroll passed the video ad (after you watch it of course…it’s an odd ad) to get to the story, there are five pages of mod progress pictures and commentary. Well worth the visit!
Oooohhh! There is video!

Hat [...]

October 3rd Declared “Day Against DRM”

Sign up here

Radius 320 monitor: Three screens in one

I was looking at this (50-inch (diagonal) screen with a massive resolution of 4,800 x 1,200 pixels that you can use with any machine) on the scifi.com Blog. I really need one of these units for usability testing. Yea! that’s it! Testing!

Finally True HDTV: 1080p!

UPDATE January 9, 2007: Not so fast!!!

Westinghouse shows off a 2160p HDTV

1080p is really what you should be looking for in a new high-definition HDTV, but the next generation is just around the corner: Westinghouse showcases a 2160p – commonly referred to as a Quad HDTV.
The manufacturers have committed to the technology; and [...]

More Video Game Health Benefits

Video games taken as serious medicine
Video games are being treated as serious medicine in the battle against health woes ranging from obesity to cancer and dementia.
Several hundred US game developers, medical workers and government policy makers were set to collaborate in Maryland in September at the Games for Health Project devoted to putting video [...]

Microsoft To Enable User-Created Xbox 360 Games!

Talking on the eve of its Gamefest event in Seattle, Microsoft has revealed XNA Game Studio Express, a new product which will allow indie developers and students to develop simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PC, and share their games to others in a new Xbox 360 ‘Creators Club’.
read more | digg story

Games and puzzles help minds stay sharp

Playing for keeps: Games, puzzles help tired minds stay sharp

Getting your body into good physical shape is hardly fun and games, thanks to dieting, exercise and the difficulty in changing bad habits.
But fun and games may be a key in getting your brain into shape. There is growing evidence that people who engage in puzzles, [...]

Dance Dance!

Are video games healthy? Watch this Young DDR Player and you tell me!

This is great excercise for any age. A workout for the mind and body.
Previous: Video Game Health: Dance Dance! and More Video Game Brain Health Benefits and What is your Brain Age? and even More Video [...]

Video Game Health: Dance Dance!

Video game fans dance off extra pounds

Forget the image of paunchy video gamers holed up in a dark room, surrounded by sticky Twinkie wrappers and empty soda cans.
Dance Dance Revolution is as challenging and vigorous as a high impact aerobics class.

Surfing The Web With Nothing But Brainwaves

Surfing the Web with nothing but brainwaves
Kiss your keyboard goodbye: Soon we’ll jack our brains directly into the Net. Controlling devices with the mind is just the beginning. Next is what is called “network-enabled telepathy” – instant thought transfer. In other words, your thoughts will flow from your brain over the network. The only issue [...]

Hints of the New Economy: ‘Gold farming’ in games means real income in China

Thanks to Tim Wang’s eLearning Blog for the image!
‘Gold farming’ in games means real income in China
A vast shadow industry has mushroomed in rural China. Savvy entrepreneurs harness teams to play popular online games, gathering magic spells, battle hammers, armor and other virtual assets. They then provide the assets to brokers, who sell them to [...]

Brain-Implanted Chip Uses Thought to Operate Devices

Brain-Implanted Chip Uses Thought to Operate Devices
With a tiny, electronic chip implanted in the motor cortex of his brain, a 25-year-old man paralyzed from the neck down for five years has learned to use his thoughts to operate a computer, turn on a TV set, open e-mail, play a video game and manipulate a robotic [...]

AMD Sour Grapes

Microarchitecture now expected at the end of this month, early tests from Tom’s Hardware Guide are lending credence to Intel’s claim that it has regained the advantage in the race for best CPU performance per watt of energy. In advance of Intel’s release announcement, AMD has mounted what press managers for a political campaign would [...]

The Core 2: Intel Goes for the Jugular

Some links and info:
PC Mag says:
It’s been a long time coming.
Core 2 isn’t just another iteration of the Pentium M. Instead, it steals a little from the old Netburst (Intel’s name for the architecture of the Pentium 4/Pentium D processors) architecture and adds additional enhancements of its own.
The result is a processor with [...]

XBox 360 tops 60% Attach Rate for XBox Live service

Xbox Live Hits 60% Attach As New Details Revealed
With Sony still only talking about what’s going to happen with its PlayStation online service, Microsoft took its opportunity to remind developers just how well Xbox Live is performing
The attach rate for Xbox Live amongst Xbox 360 users – a massive 60 percent, which is a huge [...]

Garage Games Announces Torque Game Builder

GarageGames on Wednesday announced the release of two new tools to make it easier for people with an idea to create their own games: Torque Game Builder and Torque Game Builder Pro. Both are available for Mac
OS X and Windows, with prices starting at $100.
Torque Game Builder features tools for making animated sprites, flexible [...]