Source: http://www.gamesradar.com/f/talkradar-168-smurf-you-mega-man/a-20110729183319464055
board Games Game Designer Video Games Centre iPad 2 demo game
"They're f*cking it up. Why are they f*cking it up? How is it not obvious to them that they're f*cking it up? Please, Nintendo, for the love of God, take a step back, look at yourselves, and stop f*cking it up!" This has been my mantra since the 3DS was launched. Don’t get me wrong, I love my 3DS. It's my favourite of all handhelds, barring my original 1989 house-brick Game Boy. But ye gods, not since the Virtual Boy has Nintendo so raucously screwed up a console launch.
Okay, so the 3DS sold more in its first week as the VB sold in its entire curtailed life-span, but recently? In Q1 the three months immediately after the initial launch window hysteria died down, the 3DS sold just 700,000. That's a current-gen handheld from the kings of the handheld console, with cooler features, more horsepower and (potentially) better software support than any handheld before it, going into nosedive at exactly the time it should have been building inertia. And now Nintendo is panic-managing a disturbingly drastic 33% price drop and a massive software giveaway.
Why did it come to this? Because this entire launch has been completely mis-managed from day one since the machine was announced. Read on , and I'll explain exactly how Nintendo has messed up.
The Nintendo 3DS was announced big. Really big, in fact. Remember Nintendo's triumphant E3 2010 press conference? Yeah, of course you do. It was the one where it threw off the shackles of crappy casual-market pandering after five miserable years, locked Cammie Dunaway in a crate, and went full 2001 glory-days-style all up in dem bitches faces. New Donkey Kong. Bam. New GoldenEye. Bam. New StarFox. Bam. New Kid Icarus. Bam. New, pimp-specced handheld that did glasses-free 3D by way of nothing less than total goddamn witchcraft! Bam bam bam!
Above: This was exciting
Oh, and said handheld had Splinter Cell and Metal Gear and Mario Kart, and a console-quality Resident Evil, and Pilotwings, and Paper Mario, and Kingdom Hearts, and Zelda, and frickin' Street frickin' Fighter frickin' IV! Nintendo was back. The real Nintendo was back. And it was bringing everyone along for the welcome home party. We laughed. We cried. Meiks did a feature about how the 3DS potentially had the best launch line-up in history. And he was right. It did. But there's potential, and then there's realisation. And the realisation was a kick in the stones hard enough to end an entire family line.
In his feature, Meiks happily stated that if even half of the possible launch line-up happened, our wallets would be "truly f*cked". Of course it was too much to expect everything Nintendo had shown at E3 to turn up straight away. But Ninty had done a good enough job of establishing the 3DS as a real core gamer's handheld, with real core game support, that the launch was clearly going to be strong. But we didn't get half. We didn't even get a quarter. We got Street Fighter, we got Pilotwings, we got Ridge Racer, and we got a whole lot of lazy Ubisoft ports and other crap no-one cared about.
Above: So was this
"But hey", we thought. "That’s just launch window blues. It'll be a mega-ton line-up in a couple of months when generation two of that insane E3 treasure trove turns up". But five months later, we're still pretty much stuck with the launch line-up. Capcom has curled out a shovelware Resi score-attack game to keep the brand alive on the system until the one we were originally sold on turns up next year, but that's pretty much it. And don't get all "But Ocarina of Time! It is the bestest game ever made!" at me, because I'm coming to that in a bit. The fact is, Nintendo knew that a return to the core was needed. And it was really clever about making that switch. It waited until Microsoft and Sony were running to catch up to the motion-control bandwagon, it saw market saturation imminent, and it bailed the hell out, knowing that if it embraced its long-disenfranchised core fans now, it was onto a tidal-wave of goodwill.
Above: This was not
But it seemed to forget somewhere along the way that if you made promises like that then you actually have to deliver. You can't hand over a six-foot birthday present with rainbow ribbons and hologram wrapping paper if there's something rubbish in the box. If the box is small and modest, people know what to expect. We're used to launch line-ups being crap. We're fine with it. But false impressions are the difference between understanding acceptance and raging disappointment. Perhaps Nintendo had spent so long satiating the meagre demands of the passionless waggle-crowd that it had forgotten the effort it used to take to really please a hardcore crowd. And that brings me on to my next, much more important point...
Game Designer Video Games Centre iPad 2 demo game mobile games
As if Superman wasn't enough of a dick when he's temporarily hopped up on red Kryptonite, a handful of crafty GTA IV modders have created ways to let the Metropolis Marvel wreak havoc on the citizens of Liberty City on a full-time basis.
The three-part process begins by downloading and installing the Superman flying mod, created by one nixolas1. It allows PC GTA IV players to evolve their avatar into a fully functional Kryptonian complete with (slightly less speedy) flying powers and the ability to wield weapons from above. A complimentary mod, called Simple Trainer, takes the concept further by granting players access to all three islands, as well as the power over time, weather and gravity. Oh, and just for kicks, it also adds the ability to light innocent civilians on fire (c'mon, you know want to).
In order to complete the Superman transformation, one must also download and install the Superman model, crafted to match Supes' classic style by H1VItg3. Once complete, players will have the looks, talent and unfettered access to lord over Liberty City however they see fit. And should that mean flying into Brucie Kibbutz balcony and taking him for a romantic midnight flight in the clouds - hey, whatever floats your boat.
Finding and installing the three mods is a bit of a chore. Thankfully, our tech savvy friends at PC Gamer have compiled a step by step guide which should make the process a breeze. Get it? Breeze? I'll show myself out..
Jul 28, 2011
For more than ten years, Swedish phone camera software company Scalado has been spearheading imaging innovations — but few people outside of the mobile industry realize how much of an impact the company has had.
Scalado’s technology, which includes advanced software for taking, viewing, and editing pictures on your phone, has been placed in over 900 million mobile devices so far, the company announced last month. Its software landed on over 350 million devices last year, and is set to be included on 500 million more in 2011.
Soon enough, Scalado’s software will be featured on a billion devices — something few software companies can boast. Scalado is a prime example of how a small international company — it only has around 110 employees — can become a major force in the global app economy.
The company’s early innovations include Random Access JPEG, a patented technology that made it easy for 2002-era phones to deal with photos; CAPS, a software development kit that made managing multi-megapixel pictures more CPU and memory efficient; and SpeedTags, technology that made JPEG optimization on mobile phones near-instant. Many of Scalado’s more recent technologies, including zero shutter lag shooting (pictures get taken as soon as you hit the shutter button), burst shot, and high-definition range shooting, are built upon SpeedTags and are included in the company’s Camera SDK.
Scalado has been able to get its technology on nearly a billion devices because it works across pretty much any platform, including iOS, Android and Symbian. The company’s partners and customers include Motorola, Nokia, Sony/Ericsson, HTC and Qualcomm. And now with tablets on the rise, Scalado’s tech has yet another group of devices to invade. The company recently showed off an iPad demo album for viewing 10,000 photos.
Raj Talluri, Qualcomm’s vice president of product management, praised Scalado during our MobileBeat 2011 conference earlier this month:
We built the hardware inside our developer platform, Snapdragon, to take pictures at high speeds and compress them into the perfect shot. Scalado then built their application to complements our hardware. The app allows the user to choose a face from those high speed-taken photos and layers it smoothly on your end picture. It?s a total solution for mobile picture taking.
The feature Talluri’s referring to is called Rewind, and as you can see in the video below it could be useful for touching up photos without actually retaking them. Scalado also recently showed off Multi-Angle (see video below), a feature that allows you to sweep your phone around an object to create a semi-3D image that’s viewable on 2D screens. Recipients of Multi-Angle photos can pan around the image simply by tilting their phone.
Scalado will continue to play a big part in the future of mobile imaging. Another recent video from the company demonstrates futuristic editing capabilities like the ability to fill in missing elements from a photos (for a full 360 degrees), even more robust 3D capturing, and the ability to take “intelligent pictures”, or photos that you can explore like a typical Web page.
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Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), run by Tesla Motors chief executive and PayPal mafioso Elon Musk, is looking at a November launch for its second private space flight to the International Space Station.
It’s one of the first of several launches for the company as part of a 12-flight cargo mission to supply the International Space Station now that the U.S. space shuttle program has ended. SpaceX secured $1.6 billion in funding to run the mission.
“I think it’s a really exciting time for space, because for the first time in several decades we had a very real prospect of fielding multiple human space vehicles,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides told VentureBeat. “That’s good for the U.S., it encourages innovation and also provides more than one option, which means it’s more reliable.”
The National�Aeronautics�and Space Administration (NASA) is currently discussing developing an in-line, disposable space vehicle that would put between 70 and 130 tons of cargo into orbit. Those rockets are primarily planned for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, Whitesides said. But there’s plenty of room for a company to handle cargo missions and sub-orbital travel, he said.
There’s also room for companies that specialize in space tourism, like Virgin Galactic. That company sells tickets for flights in sub-orbital paths above the Earth for around $200,000, while there are companies in Russia that sell tickets for orbital flights for around $65 million each ticket.
“My sense is that we’ll (Virgin Galactic) be the next american company that sends humans into space,” he said. “Obviously it’s sub-orbital versus orbital, but I think our general expectation whether it’s sub-orbital or orbital is that over time prices will come down.”
SpaceX is one of two companies NASA has contracted to fly cargo missions to the International Space Station now that the shuttle program has ended. NASA has also contracted Orbital Sciences to launch cargo missions to the space station.
SpaceX has raised $500 million from investors and $300 million in funding from NASA. The company was the first to send a private space capsule into orbit and bring it back to Earth in December.
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Free Online board Games Game Designer Video Games Centre iPad 2
Comcast cut off broadband access to Andre Vrignaud for excessive usage. Will anybody else step up and take Vrignaud’s lifetime of monthly fees for internet service at the top of a hill in Seattle?
Comcast stirred a pot of trouble when it decided to cut off Vrignaud, who twice exceeded his monthly data cap of 250 gigabytes on his cable modem. Vrignaud’s story hit news outlets across the nation and raised the question: What do broadband providers have to put up with when it comes to their customers, particularly as cloud computing starts to put the strain on networks? And what right do consumers have to internet access?
Vrignaud, a former game-focused platform strategist and evangelist for Microsoft and Intel, is a frequent blogger on his own personal Ozymandias site. He also recently worked at Amazon and is now an independent game industry consultant. He’s raising a lot of questions about it now. Comcast offered to restore service this week, but Vrignaud said it was too late.
He let the world know about how Comcast cut him off and the arbitrary nature of it. Dozens of publications wrote about it. Vrignaud is considering his options, which include Comcast’s rival, Qwest/CenturyLink, which could provide bandwidth via telephone lines. Comcast is getting a publicity black-eye and taking a drubbing from consumers for its stance on data caps at a time when bandwidth should be getting less expensive, not more.
We caught up with Vrignaud in Seattle at the Casual Connect game conference, and he told us the latest about his ordeal.
It all started on July 11, when Vrignaud came home and discovered he had no internet and that he would be cut off for a year. Vrignaud had a $60 a month Comcast cable modem that could deliver 15 megabits a second to his home and carry data out of his home at 3 megabits per second. A month earlier, Vrignaud said he had a “polite but irritated” conversation with Comcast’s Customer Security Department about how much data he was using. He told them he had no idea how he used so much and wondered if his roommates may have hit the limit because they watched Netflix HD streaming movies and listened to Pandora’s internet-streamed music radio. He also had an open access point that he reserved for guests. Vrignaud wanted to know his usage details, but Comcast wouldn’t share that.
“I made very clear to the gentleman I spoke with that I thought Comcast?s data cap policy was arbitrary, unfair, and extremely irritating,” Vrignaud later wrote on his blog. “And that if I had any decent competitive options in the neighborhood I?d dump Comcast in a heartbeat. Since I don?t, I listened to him read his canned warning that if I exceeded their cap again I?d be cut off again.”
Comcast reactivated the service and Vrignaud asked roommates to keep an eye on the bandwidth use and deactivated the visitor access point. Then he forgot about it, got cut off again, and found that he had now been banned for a full year “due to exceeding Comcast’s acceptable use policy limits.”
Charlie Douglas, a spokesman for Comcast, said, “More than 99 percent of our customers don?t even come close to using 250 gigabytes of data in a month. Nationwide, our customers? median data usage is four to six gigabytes a month. 250 gigabytes is an extraordinary amount of data and equivalent to downloading 62,500 songs or uploading 25,000 hi-res photos.”
Comcast started its bandwidth cap in 2008. In late 2009, Comcast rolled out a bandwidth monitor for those 1 percent of customers who are likely to come close to the data cap. Douglas also said that Comcast transparently explains all of its data usage policies, which customers agree to when they sign up. It also describes what it considers to be excessive use.
When Comcast finally cut Vrignaud off, he made it known to the world via his blog and contacts. He also figured out that he hit his limit because he uploaded many hundreds of audio CDs and high-resolution pictures to cloud storage accounts.
“In the case of music I rip my CDs to WMA Lossless (for ease of streaming to Windows), FLAC (another lossless format, so I can stream losslessly to my Sonos system), and M4A (also known as Apple?s iTunes AAC format, so I can import my music from the media server to iTunes),” Vrignaud said. “I?m a big believer in storing the original, lossless digital content so that I can access it in full fidelity in the future no matter how technology evolves. In some ways that makes me a bit archaic as I still buy (used) CDs from Amazon for all of my music so I can rip it losslessly ? I?m not a fan of the compressed music formats you buy and download. But the ramification is that I have terabytes of storage in my basement RAID server ? each music track is duplicated three times, I have all of my original RAW photos, plus processed JPEG versions of those RAW photos, as well as a variety of other miscellaneous content ? documents, spreadsheets, that sort of thing.”
That explained the problem. Vrignaud bought a three-year subscription to Carbonite so he could back up all of the content to the cloud. He also uploaded his music collection to Amazon’s new Cloud Drive service, so that he could access it while on the road. All of that uploading caused Vrignaud to exceed his bandwidth cap.
“I suspect many people are going to be surprised by this in the coming years, especially as the cloud continues to become more and more a part of our lives,” he said.
Comcast told him there was no appeal to the ruling, at first. He said he would post on it and send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Public Knowledge organization, New Media Foundation, the city of Seattle?s Mayor?s Office, and his Seattle City Council representative. Vrignaud had no luck.
Vrignaud was upset because he believes that “the ability to access broadband internet is a right, and should be defined as an essential utility,” provided that you pay for it.
“Just as you?re surprised when you flick a light switch and the light doesn?t come on so are you surprised when the internet goes away in your house,” he wrote. “The internet is used for communication, entertainment, business ? an entire panopoly of humor endevours. Just as there are protections to keep water and electricity flowing to your house, so should the internet be protected.”
He added, “Now the broadband companies would strongly disagree with me here. They?re terrified of being turned into dumb pipes that only deliver data. This is why you see such vicious fights over the definition of internet neutrality, and cable companies fighting to be able to restrict services that flow over their pipes, inspect packets, or have the right to charge more for differing levels of service. They try to spin this as protecting the integrity of the network for other customers, and not having to charge more to offer service that some small percentage of their users overuse. However, these same companies are also strangely quiet when you ask them why (as in Comcast?s case) they?re able to keep boosting my broadband speed tier year after year for no additional charge. Or why their quarterly filings show their cost of providing broadband service continues to drop year after year, while rates keep going up. It doesn?t add up.”
Indeed, broadband costs should be falling as more users join the internet and pay for the shared costs. Technology is also getting more and more efficient as better chips and networking equipment can replace older, less-efficient technologies.
Ultimately, more users will find themselves in the same shoes as Vrignaud, who seems like a bandwidth hog today. People will come to depend on cloud services like Dropbox, Simplenote, Google Apps, and Google Docs for work. They will use streaming online services such as Netflix, Xbox Live, Playstation Network, OnLive, Gaikai, Otoy and Pandora for entertainment. The use of these bandwidth-heavy services is expected to go up. During primetime, streaming services such as Netflix reportedly accounts for 30 percent of traffic. Sandvine estimates it could be 55 percent of peak internet traffic by the end of this year.
Vrignaud is trying to gather political and consumer support for his plight, not just from the David vs. Goliath angle, but on whether internet service providers should be allowed to cut people off for overuse. While he is a heavy user, he is an example of the kind of typical user in the future who will tap a lot of cloud services; at some point, we will all use a lot more bandwidth. He noted that Public Knowledge has asked Comcast why it needs to cut off users for “excessive use” when those users are not themselves directly to blame for network congestion. Uploading data from midnight to 6 am will likely not lead to congestion, but it could still trigger a violation of the data cap. Vrignaud suggested that Comcast charge heavy users an extra $10 or $20 a month to pay for their extra costs.
Related to this is the problem that Netflix recently ran into: It had to raise the fees it charges users for its disk-based movie service, though it kept the movie-streaming monthly fee unchanged. At some point, will Netflix have to raise that too as bandwidth providers start charging fees to Netflix? If there are fees attached to the new video services based on data usage, then consumers won’t want to use them as much and those new services won’t disrupt the traditional media the way they were intended to do so. That reduces consumer choice, and that is why Vrignaud asked the FCC to look into the matter of data caps.
Of course, a Netflix HD movie consumes only about 1 gigabyte to 1.5 gigabytes of data per hour. You would have to watch 166 hours to 250 hours of HD movies a month to hit the bandwidth cap. That’s not likely for most users. But it’s more of a problem if they are using lots of other cloud services too, Vrignaud says. In any case, Comcast could probably better address the coming data problem by introducing tiered fees, such as charging extra or slowing data delivery if it exceeds the 250 gigabyte cap.
Comcast has a business version of its data plan, ranging from $65 a month to $395 a month, depending on the speed of data coming into and out of the house. There is no cap for the business users, but the installation fees, hardware leases, and time requirements for that business option aren’t necessarily that attractive. Even if Vrignaud wanted to get this option, he can’t, since it is not available to anyone who had been banned from the Comcast consumer service for a year. At least that is what Comcast told him before the media blitz hit. Vrignaud notes that the business versions appears to be just a re-branding of the consumer service, as it uses “high-end networking equipment.” That phrase actually just means a DOCSIS 3.0 modem from Comcast — equipment that Vrignaud already has.
Meanwhile, Vrignaud is hoping someone else will provide fast internet services to his neighborhood on the top of a hill in the Montlake section of Seattle. Comcast representatives spoke to him again this week, this time offering to restore service. But Vrignaud told them he was pursuing other options.
“They didn’t bring any answers,” Vrignaud said. “They wanted to talk, understand my concerns, get ideas. Supposedly they’re investigating things. Also wanted to offer me broadband back. But not a single answer to any of the hard questions.”
Here are Vrignaud’s questions for Comcast. We haven’t gotten answers from them yet.
Is your bandwidth data cap designed to protect your television distribution business? If not, why do you insist on completely cutting off data instead of using other more consumer-friendly options such as charging for overages or slowing internet use?
What ISP-offered services are excluded from the cap? Specifically, are your voice telephony and video programming services excluded? If so, why doesn?t your data cap apply to data consumed when watching television or making a phone call?
How are your data caps set? What data informed that decision? Why do different ISPs have different data caps when using similar networks and distribution technology?
How are your data caps evaluated on an ongoing basis? What customer input do you seek? What are the conditions under which those caps could be raised and/or eliminated?
Do you practice selective enforcement of data caps? (Many ISP users report being over their supposed limits for months in a row without action.)
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Game Designer Video Games Centre iPad 2 demo game mobile games
Comcast cut off broadband access to Andre Vrignaud for excessive usage. Will anybody else step up and take Vrignaud’s lifetime of monthly fees for internet service at the top of a hill in Seattle?
Comcast stirred a pot of trouble when it decided to cut off Vrignaud, who twice exceeded his monthly data cap of 250 gigabytes on his cable modem. Vrignaud’s story hit news outlets across the nation and raised the question: What do broadband providers have to put up with when it comes to their customers, particularly as cloud computing starts to put the strain on networks? And what right do consumers have to internet access?
Vrignaud, a former game-focused platform strategist and evangelist for Microsoft and Intel, is a frequent blogger on his own personal Ozymandias site. He also recently worked at Amazon and is now an independent game industry consultant. He’s raising a lot of questions about it now. Comcast offered to restore service this week, but Vrignaud said it was too late.
He let the world know about how Comcast cut him off and the arbitrary nature of it. Dozens of publications wrote about it. Vrignaud is considering his options, which include Comcast’s rival, Qwest/CenturyLink, which could provide bandwidth via telephone lines. Comcast is getting a publicity black-eye and taking a drubbing from consumers for its stance on data caps at a time when bandwidth should be getting less expensive, not more.
We caught up with Vrignaud in Seattle at the Casual Connect game conference, and he told us the latest about his ordeal.
It all started on July 11, when Vrignaud came home and discovered he had no internet and that he would be cut off for a year. Vrignaud had a $60 a month Comcast cable modem that could deliver 15 megabits a second to his home and carry data out of his home at 3 megabits per second. A month earlier, Vrignaud said he had a “polite but irritated” conversation with Comcast’s Customer Security Department about how much data he was using. He told them he had no idea how he used so much and wondered if his roommates may have hit the limit because they watched Netflix HD streaming movies and listened to Pandora’s internet-streamed music radio. He also had an open access point that he reserved for guests. Vrignaud wanted to know his usage details, but Comcast wouldn’t share that.
“I made very clear to the gentleman I spoke with that I thought Comcast?s data cap policy was arbitrary, unfair, and extremely irritating,” Vrignaud later wrote on his blog. “And that if I had any decent competitive options in the neighborhood I?d dump Comcast in a heartbeat. Since I don?t, I listened to him read his canned warning that if I exceeded their cap again I?d be cut off again.”
Comcast reactivated the service and Vrignaud asked roommates to keep an eye on the bandwidth use and deactivated the visitor access point. Then he forgot about it, got cut off again, and found that he had now been banned for a full year “due to exceeding Comcast’s acceptable use policy limits.”
Charlie Douglas, a spokesman for Comcast, said, “More than 99 percent of our customers don?t even come close to using 250 gigabytes of data in a month. Nationwide, our customers? median data usage is four to six gigabytes a month. 250 gigabytes is an extraordinary amount of data and equivalent to downloading 62,500 songs or uploading 25,000 hi-res photos.”
Comcast started its bandwidth cap in 2008. In late 2009, Comcast rolled out a bandwidth monitor for those 1 percent of customers who are likely to come close to the data cap. Douglas also said that Comcast transparently explains all of its data usage policies, which customers agree to when they sign up. It also describes what it considers to be excessive use.
When Comcast finally cut Vrignaud off, he made it known to the world via his blog and contacts. He also figured out that he hit his limit because he uploaded many hundreds of audio CDs and high-resolution pictures to cloud storage accounts.
“In the case of music I rip my CDs to WMA Lossless (for ease of streaming to Windows), FLAC (another lossless format, so I can stream losslessly to my Sonos system), and M4A (also known as Apple?s iTunes AAC format, so I can import my music from the media server to iTunes),” Vrignaud said. “I?m a big believer in storing the original, lossless digital content so that I can access it in full fidelity in the future no matter how technology evolves. In some ways that makes me a bit archaic as I still buy (used) CDs from Amazon for all of my music so I can rip it losslessly ? I?m not a fan of the compressed music formats you buy and download. But the ramification is that I have terabytes of storage in my basement RAID server ? each music track is duplicated three times, I have all of my original RAW photos, plus processed JPEG versions of those RAW photos, as well as a variety of other miscellaneous content ? documents, spreadsheets, that sort of thing.”
That explained the problem. Vrignaud bought a three-year subscription to Carbonite so he could back up all of the content to the cloud. He also uploaded his music collection to Amazon’s new Cloud Drive service, so that he could access it while on the road. All of that uploading caused Vrignaud to exceed his bandwidth cap.
“I suspect many people are going to be surprised by this in the coming years, especially as the cloud continues to become more and more a part of our lives,” he said.
Comcast told him there was no appeal to the ruling, at first. He said he would post on it and send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Public Knowledge organization, New Media Foundation, the city of Seattle?s Mayor?s Office, and his Seattle City Council representative. Vrignaud had no luck.
Vrignaud was upset because he believes that “the ability to access broadband internet is a right, and should be defined as an essential utility,” provided that you pay for it.
“Just as you?re surprised when you flick a light switch and the light doesn?t come on so are you surprised when the internet goes away in your house,” he wrote. “The internet is used for communication, entertainment, business ? an entire panopoly of humor endevours. Just as there are protections to keep water and electricity flowing to your house, so should the internet be protected.”
He added, “Now the broadband companies would strongly disagree with me here. They?re terrified of being turned into dumb pipes that only deliver data. This is why you see such vicious fights over the definition of internet neutrality, and cable companies fighting to be able to restrict services that flow over their pipes, inspect packets, or have the right to charge more for differing levels of service. They try to spin this as protecting the integrity of the network for other customers, and not having to charge more to offer service that some small percentage of their users overuse. However, these same companies are also strangely quiet when you ask them why (as in Comcast?s case) they?re able to keep boosting my broadband speed tier year after year for no additional charge. Or why their quarterly filings show their cost of providing broadband service continues to drop year after year, while rates keep going up. It doesn?t add up.”
Indeed, broadband costs should be falling as more users join the internet and pay for the shared costs. Technology is also getting more and more efficient as better chips and networking equipment can replace older, less-efficient technologies.
Ultimately, more users will find themselves in the same shoes as Vrignaud, who seems like a bandwidth hog today. People will come to depend on cloud services like Dropbox, Simplenote, Google Apps, and Google Docs for work. They will use streaming online services such as Netflix, Xbox Live, Playstation Network, OnLive, Gaikai, Otoy and Pandora for entertainment. The use of these bandwidth-heavy services is expected to go up. During primetime, streaming services such as Netflix reportedly accounts for 30 percent of traffic. Sandvine estimates it could be 55 percent of peak internet traffic by the end of this year.
Vrignaud is trying to gather political and consumer support for his plight, not just from the David vs. Goliath angle, but on whether internet service providers should be allowed to cut people off for overuse. While he is a heavy user, he is an example of the kind of typical user in the future who will tap a lot of cloud services; at some point, we will all use a lot more bandwidth. He noted that Public Knowledge has asked Comcast why it needs to cut off users for “excessive use” when those users are not themselves directly to blame for network congestion. Uploading data from midnight to 6 am will likely not lead to congestion, but it could still trigger a violation of the data cap. Vrignaud suggested that Comcast charge heavy users an extra $10 or $20 a month to pay for their extra costs.
Related to this is the problem that Netflix recently ran into: It had to raise the fees it charges users for its disk-based movie service, though it kept the movie-streaming monthly fee unchanged. At some point, will Netflix have to raise that too as bandwidth providers start charging fees to Netflix? If there are fees attached to the new video services based on data usage, then consumers won’t want to use them as much and those new services won’t disrupt the traditional media the way they were intended to do so. That reduces consumer choice, and that is why Vrignaud asked the FCC to look into the matter of data caps.
Of course, a Netflix HD movie consumes only about 1 gigabyte to 1.5 gigabytes of data per hour. You would have to watch 166 hours to 250 hours of HD movies a month to hit the bandwidth cap. That’s not likely for most users. But it’s more of a problem if they are using lots of other cloud services too, Vrignaud says. In any case, Comcast could probably better address the coming data problem by introducing tiered fees, such as charging extra or slowing data delivery if it exceeds the 250 gigabyte cap.
Comcast has a business version of its data plan, ranging from $65 a month to $395 a month, depending on the speed of data coming into and out of the house. There is no cap for the business users, but the installation fees, hardware leases, and time requirements for that business option aren’t necessarily that attractive. Even if Vrignaud wanted to get this option, he can’t, since it is not available to anyone who had been banned from the Comcast consumer service for a year. At least that is what Comcast told him before the media blitz hit. Vrignaud notes that the business versions appears to be just a re-branding of the consumer service, as it uses “high-end networking equipment.” That phrase actually just means a DOCSIS 3.0 modem from Comcast — equipment that Vrignaud already has.
Meanwhile, Vrignaud is hoping someone else will provide fast internet services to his neighborhood on the top of a hill in the Montlake section of Seattle. Comcast representatives spoke to him again this week, this time offering to restore service. But Vrignaud told them he was pursuing other options.
“They didn’t bring any answers,” Vrignaud said. “They wanted to talk, understand my concerns, get ideas. Supposedly they’re investigating things. Also wanted to offer me broadband back. But not a single answer to any of the hard questions.”
Here are Vrignaud’s questions for Comcast. We haven’t gotten answers from them yet.
Is your bandwidth data cap designed to protect your television distribution business? If not, why do you insist on completely cutting off data instead of using other more consumer-friendly options such as charging for overages or slowing internet use?
What ISP-offered services are excluded from the cap? Specifically, are your voice telephony and video programming services excluded? If so, why doesn?t your data cap apply to data consumed when watching television or making a phone call?
How are your data caps set? What data informed that decision? Why do different ISPs have different data caps when using similar networks and distribution technology?
How are your data caps evaluated on an ongoing basis? What customer input do you seek? What are the conditions under which those caps could be raised and/or eliminated?
Do you practice selective enforcement of data caps? (Many ISP users report being over their supposed limits for months in a row without action.)
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As one of gaming's biggest money bags publishers, killer of studios and rampant peddler of endless sequels, Activision is regarded as being the industry villain, with CEO Bobby Kotick currently ranking somewhere between Emperor Palpatine and Rupert Murdoch in the popularity stakes. Gamers love to rag on Activision. And normally with some justification. But look here - Activision is doing something good. It is giving money to independent game developers. Not for drowning kittens or other despicable schemes, but to help them make good independent games.
Activision's Independent Games Competition was announced last year and gave US based indie devs the opportunity to submit games (either completed, in development, or still at concept stage) for consideration. And the incredibly benevolent Activision has just picked the first two winners. First prize winner Peter Angstadt gets $175,000 for his game Dstroyd. This is what Dstryd looks like:
Developer Engient claims the $75,000 second prize with its game Rigonauts: Broadside. Which is this:
But that's not all. There's a second phase of the competition still to go and the giant-hearted Activision will be giving away yet another $250,000 to indie devs for that. Unbelievable. Well done Activision for giving something back and bless Mr Bobby Kotick for giving the competition the green light.
Above: He's practically an angel
Reports that Activision will aggressively acquire all the independent developers involved, then task them with co-developing the next Bond game before closing each of them down is nothing more than a predictable cheap shot perpetrated by ourselves.
Now please feel free to commence with the cynical 'Blatant PR stunt Activision can suck my balls' comments below.
July 28, 2011
Chomping at the bit for your yearly instalment of gridiron graphic and gameplay tweaks? EA today announced it will be dropping a demo of Madden NFL 12 on August 9th, just three weeks before the real deal storms the virtual field on August 30th.
According to EA's official Madden blog, the demo will let players re-enact last season's NFC Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. The game will take place on soldier field, with the quarters set at five minutes in length.
The full retail version will feature 25 news plays, a new collision system, enhanced AI, 100% more Peyton Hillis cover poses and realistic portrayals of concussions. It will also release with a launch day roster update to adjust for the recently concluded NFL lockout.
Jul 28, 2011
E3 2011: Madden 12 preview – prettier than ever, in that “giant men colliding in the mud” kind of way
Lockout or no, Madden’s team is taking the field
Madden 12’s Hillis cover, Hall of Fame Edition revealed
Sadly, the best thing to happen to Cleveland football in 20 years
EA cracking down on concussions in Madden 12
Publisher aims to educate players of the true risks of the game
Nintendo has finally dropped the DS Lite price to $99.99, giving the six or seven people who have miraculously refrained from buying one an easy reason to take the plunge. Nintendo has also re-released six classic Mario games in bright red packaging to commemorate the price drop, and this week we're offering all of 'em - plus a DS Lite - as our weekend giveaway!
Above: That's right! Comment below to enter to win this DS Lite and these six Mario games:
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Bitter enemies come together in one of 2009's wittiest adventures
Mario Kart DS
Arguably the best Mario Kart to date
New Super Mario Bros
A grand return to form for Nintendo's world-famous mascot
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem
Undemanding fun packed with a great classic soundtrack
Super Mario 64 DS
A timeless adventure made portable, plus play as Wario, Yoshi and Luigi
Mario Party DS
Just remember there are five other Mario games in this prize!
To enter, just leave a comment on this article by 9:00AM PST on Monday, August 1. US and Canada residents only, please - we still haven't gotten over that whole Revolutionary War thing. Or was it shipping costs and pages of legalese? One of those, for sure. Full contest rules are here.
A winner will be selected at random and can expect to receive a PM from one of our administrators within a week after the contest ends. Don't forget to check your GR inbox on the site to see if you've won!
Jul 30, 2011
Source: http://www.gamesradar.com/f/grs-weekend-giveaway-ds-lite-and-6-mario-games/a-20110726141152566078
hey guys i have a minor problem, when i try to install netframe work 1.1 it starts to extract but dosent continue it just stops after the extracting phase how can i fix this please????
Source: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?411021-net-framework-1.1-Wont-install&goto=newpost
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The Internet is about to hit its fourth major shift in server architecture.
The early days were powered by simple Perl applications. As the dotcom hit, Java application servers running on highend UNIX machines powered the majority of the web and created a multibillion dollar per year industry. In the 2000s, scripting languages such as PHP and Ruby running on cloud based Linux infrastructure have spawned massive growth at companies like Rackspace and Amazon with its Amazon Web Services service.�Each of these shifts in server architecture brought greater efficiencies and the ability to more cheaply deliver more sophisticated Internet services. We are now on the verge of hitting another inflection point with JavaScript running on the server.
JavaScript came onto the scene in 1995 as the browser language in Netscape’s Navigator browser and was primarily used to implement simple user interface elements such as menus. With the wave of Web 2.0 companies building out JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and various HTML5 extensions of late, JavaScript is becoming increasingly sophisticated and capable of delivering highly interactive web and mobile-optimized sites comparable to Flash sites. As websites become more and more interactive, an increasing amount of business logic and data processing is starting to happen in the browser with JavaScript rather than on the server.
The growing up of JavaScript is leading to a collision of sorts between the client and the server. Why use one scripting language on the client, and then a different scripting language on the server? PHP and Ruby programmers are constantly dynamically building DOMs, the document object model for a browser page that JavaScript innately understands. Programmers also have to transform data in and out of JSON (the JavaScript Object Notation) so that it can be understood by browsers. All of this work translating between languages causes errors and bugs, and forces unnecessary communication between front-end and back-end developers. Each language has it stakeholders claiming better frameworks and whathaveyou, but at some point the pain of translation outweighs these benefits. Especially when you consider that JavaScript programmers are widely available, and Ruby programmers are virtually impossible to find.
Imagine if you were building a house and the architects spoke only Japanese and the builders spoke only French. There is a lot of time and energy spent handling communication and fixing miscommunication between the two parties. The same problems happen when you use two different languages to build a web application.
Even worse, when code is written, programmers have to decide whether it is going to run on the browser or on the server. Things as simple as validating a phone number need to be decided before a programmer can start, and be assigned to either the front-end JavaScript programmers or the back-end PHP, Java or Ruby programmers. Once the code is written, if for whatever reason it needs to be moved from client to server or vice versa, it needs to be rewritten from scratch.
The fissure between client and server is even starting to hit large corporate websites that have barely budged toward scripting languages from Java. When you go to your bank’s website or favorite e-commerce website, chances are that it looks and works very much like it did 10 years ago. This is because most corporations perform all of the processing of a website on their servers. When you click on something on a webpage, it goes to the server, which creates a whole new webpage and sends it to your browser. While this is not the most efficient way to serve a website, it is definitely the most efficient way to create a website inside a corporation, since the programmers do not have to learn all the intricacies of the various browsers and can simply program in Java, the favored language for corporate websites.
The sudden preponderance of mobile and tablet devices has created a sudden rupture in the way that corporations serve their websites. It is very slow and cumbersome to completely refresh a web page every time a user does something on a phone with its relatively slow web browser and connection. Now corporate web applications need to be upgraded to HTML5 and be able to update themselves dynamically, just like the modern web applications offered by Google and all of the Web 2.0 startups.
There have been various attempts to productize JavaScript on the server over the years. Netscape acquired LiveWire’s JavaScript server and shipped it in 1996 but then quickly replaced it with the Java and C++ based Kiva Application Server in 1998. Aptana attempted to provide hosted JavaScript servers and ended up selling its development tools to Appcelerator.
Over the past couple of years, a new breed of JavaScript servers have taken hold and are starting to get significant traction. An open source JavaScript server called node.js is becoming increasingly popular especially for communication servers and getting a lot of geek and startup love. Last year, Sequoia invested in Sencha, a company focused on JavaScript client libraries that has also done work on node.js.
It all makes sense when you think about it. It took many years for scripting languages to be considered serious web languages and for significant client logic to be implemented on the browser. But now this is the normal way to create an Internet application. Why code in two different scripting languages, one on the client and one on the server? It’s time for one language to rule them all.
Peter Yared is the VP/GM of Social at�Webtrends. He has founded four e-commerce and marketing infrastructure companies that were acquired by Sun, VMware, TigerLogic and Webtrends. You can follow him at�@peteryared.
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“If you are not making games on the 360, then you are doing something wrong,” argues Katsuhiro Harada, whose Tekken series was once the flagship PlayStation fighter. With the rise of Microsoft's platform, particularly in the west, Harada says bringing titles such as Tekken 6 to the Xbox 360 was an easy decision. Harada says his series continues to enjoy the #1 fighting game spot in Asia and Europe, but evidence of Harada’s ambitions for the Tekken series can be seen in the continued playful rivalry with Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono. Ever pugnacious, Harada predicts his interpretation of Street Fighter's signature characters could beat Ono's own.
“Maybe I shouldn't say this, as I mean no disrespect to Ono-san,” says Harada, who recently hit Ono in the face with a cream pie before cheering onlookers, “but Ryu and Ken will probably be even better in 3D.” Harada's Tekken X Street Fighter is being developed in tandem with Ono's Street Fighter X Tekken – a collaboration born, according to Harada, over an evening of drinking. Harada's title will bring Capcom's characters into the Tekken style of play, hopefully with better results than the series' last foray into 3D play, the Street Fighter Ex series.
Above: Ryu takes on Tekken. Glimpses of Tekken X Street Fighter may be a ways off yet
Tekken X Street Fighter is slated to release in October 2012, following Capcom's version in March: Harada says that while he and Ono have allowed each other total free reign over each others' characters, there is a timeline in place for each game's schedule of releases and iterations. “But who knows,” suggests Harada, “there may be one Super Edition...”
Jul 28, 2011
Source: Destructoid
Nintendo has finally dropped the DS Lite price to $99.99, giving the six or seven people who have miraculously refrained from buying one an easy reason to take the plunge. Nintendo has also re-released six classic Mario games in bright red packaging to commemorate the price drop, and this week we're offering all of 'em - plus a DS Lite - as our weekend giveaway!
Above: That's right! Comment below to enter to win this DS Lite and these six Mario games:
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Bitter enemies come together in one of 2009's wittiest adventures
Mario Kart DS
Arguably the best Mario Kart to date
New Super Mario Bros
A grand return to form for Nintendo's world-famous mascot
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem
Undemanding fun packed with a great classic soundtrack
Super Mario 64 DS
A timeless adventure made portable, plus play as Wario, Yoshi and Luigi
Mario Party DS
Just remember there are five other Mario games in this prize!
To enter, just leave a comment on this article by 9:00AM PST on Monday, August 1. US and Canada residents only, please - we still haven't gotten over that whole Revolutionary War thing. Or was it shipping costs and pages of legalese? One of those, for sure. Full contest rules are here.
A winner will be selected at random and can expect to receive a PM from one of our administrators within a week after the contest ends. Don't forget to check your GR inbox on the site to see if you've won!
Jul 30, 2011
Source: http://www.gamesradar.com/f/grs-weekend-giveaway-ds-lite-and-6-mario-games/a-20110726141152566078
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I have a few questions.... I solo a lot so what is the best traits for me to have for my warden.. also whats the best pocket thing for me to have? I think there is a statue and some other stuff? Also should I go Spear, Sheild or Fist???!!!
Source: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?410966-warden&goto=newpost
Hi, I understand that in theory only characters that have been logged in as VIP's get all swift travel routes. I created a new character on premium recently and he seems to have some routes but not others. For example he has Thorins Gate, Celondim and Michael Delving but does NOT have Coombe.
I just wonder what gives and whether there is a list of prohibited routes somehwere?
This seems to be one of the very few things that can not be permanently accessed with TP's. I was thinking of doing a months premium to get bags auction slots etc but not sure its worth it for one character (all my others have seen VIP time). Oh and the mouse over text for the routes needs updating it suggests that any current or former subscriber should have access to the locked route.
Source: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?410914-VIP-vs.-Premium-swift-travel&goto=newpost
Source: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?410920-Cosmetic-Outfit-Captain-s-Pet&goto=newpost
I only play solo on Lotro and wondered what the best armour etc is to raise my morale level (I'm a level 65 Guardian). A lot of the best armour is, understandably, from raids - but I can't physically sit at a computer long enough to do these. Any help on armour, jewellery will be much appreciated.
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We just wanted to give you a friendly reminder that the Rusty Hearts closed beta has officially begun. GamesRadar readers who got a closed beta key in our previous giveaway can start punching and high-kicking their way through Perfect World’s stylish anime inspired dungeon brawler.
Missed your chance to get a beta key? It’s not too late! Login to GamesRadar and head here to get your key and start playing today.
Above: Register with a key from GamesRadar, and you’ll unlock these exclusive insect costume to fight in while testing the beta
Social bed and breakfast marketplace Airbnb started the week on a high note by confirming that it had raised a large $112 million second round of funding that pushed the startup’s valuation to an estimated $1.3 billion. Just days later, the company’s reputation spiraled down after social link sharing community Hacker News caught wind of an Airbnb user’s emotional account of merciless renters, who ransacked her apartment and turned her entire life upside down.
“Three difficult days ago, I returned home from an exhausting week of business travel to an apartment that I no longer recognized… With heart pounding and stomach churning, I slowly swung the door open as both a pungent odor and the full realization of what had occurred washed over me: this wasn’t just a random break-in. My home had been burglarized, vandalized and thoroughly trashed by a ‘traveler’ I connected with via the online rental agency, Airbnb.com,” wrote San Francisco resident EJ on her personal blog June 29.
Airbnb’s service pairs travelers seeking a unique experience with locals (like EJ) willing to rent out their spaces for a fee. But as EJ learned, the company does not insure any damages incurred during the renter’s stay.
Contrary to statements made by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in a public letter published by TechCrunch, EJ claims that the company hasn’t been in close contact with her since the incident. According to a follow-up blog post written July 28, the only interaction she claims to have had was through correspondence with an unidentified Airbnb co-founder, who is described as more concerned with the company than her awful situation.
In the follow-up blog post, EJ writes:
I received a personal call from one of the co-founders of Airbnb. We had a lengthy conversation, in which he indicated having knowledge of the (previously mentioned) person who had been apprehended by the police, but that he could not discuss the details or these previous cases with me, as the investigation was ongoing. He then addressed his concerns about my blog post, and the potentially negative impact it could have on his company?s growth and current round of funding. During this call and in messages thereafter, he requested that I shut down the blog altogether or limit its access, and a few weeks later, suggested that I update the blog with a ?twist” of good news so as to ?complete[s] the story?.
It’s difficult to give much weight to EJ’s accusations, since she’s chosen to remain anonymous. However, both the San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco Chronicle have confirmed part of her story as credible.
Airbnb declined VentureBeat’s request for an interview to dispel misinformation about the situation and clarify the company’s future intentions.
A company spokesperson gave the following statement:
“We were shocked and disturbed to hear about this unfortunate situation and since that moment have done everything in our power to assist EJ. We have offered assistance with accommodation, transportation, and financial support to help EJ find some sense of security in light of such tragic circumstances. We have also been assisting the police with their investigation and have confirmed with the SFPD that they have a female suspect in custody that they are investigating for vandalism and theft. Safety and security are our utmost priorities and we are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.”
Plenty of people will be watching Airbnb’s next steps. The company cannot afford to have another incident like this happen without causing concern among investors. But the startup still has lots of potential (as evident from the number of copycat competitors) and many options to help keep its users safe from vandalism. It also has millions in the bank to figure out how to factor a vandalism safety net into its business model.
Founded in August 2008, the San Francisco-based startup has $119.8 million total funding to date from Andreessen Horowitz, DST, General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos, Ashton Kutcher and others. The service has seen incredible growth of 800 percent in the last year and had over 1.6 million local homes booked since it launched in 2008.
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