Slashdot Mirror

So not only are these people paying for the privilege of seeing the stories early, they're doing work for slashdot by making sure the stories are mirrored correctly (and karma whoring quite nicely at the same time).

Maybe some official mirroring technique is called for. Not by slashdot (since they've said quite plainly that they won't mirror anything), but if there was a nice bit of code to auto-mirror every article's URL to a free web mirror (or some site which has the guts to take a slashpede).

That's all.

Article Text bought to you by the letter MERKAC

Thunderstorms can set off asthma attacks, and fungus may be to blame, a Canadian study has found.

In several countries over the years, emergency room visits related to asthma have spiked after severe thunderstorms, the study's lead author, Dr. Robert E. Dales of the University of Ottawa Health Research Institute said.

But the link has neither been well established nor explained, he added.

For the study, which was published in the journal Chest, the researchers examined four years of records from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and compared the pattern of asthma attacks with daily data on weather, airborne allergens and pollution collected at a nearby airport.

Dr. Dales said that hospital visits for asthma were 15 percent more frequent on days with thunderstorms than on other days. The cause, he said, appeared to be fungal spores, which were found to be more common in air samples on those days, while other allergens, like pollen, were not.

Dr. Dales said he suspected that a storm's winds and downpours worked together to raise the level of fungal spores in the air: rain dislodges the spores and suspends them in droplets that are then spread by strong gusts and updrafts.

People who have more severe asthma problems after thunderstorms should "should stay indoors and use asthma medication if needed," Dr. Dales said. But they should also be tested to see if they are allergic to fungi, he said.

Merkac Dot : 48210

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C|Net has an interesting editorial cache [Link not cached at time of posting]
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Digital Cash. cache [Link not cached at time of posting]

Mirrored Text (for posterity, not karma): Digital Cash.

Implementations of various electronic cash protocols. Digital Cash Implementations of various electronic cash protocols.

magicmoney 1.0 Magic Money is a digital cash system designed for use over electronic mail. Magic Money is a digital cash system designed for use over electronic mail.The system is online and untraceable. Online means that each transactioninvolves an exchange with a server, to prevent double-spending. Untraceablemeans that it is impossible for anyone to trace transactions, or to match awithdrawal with a deposit, or to match two coins in any way. The systemconsists of two modules, the server and the client. Magic Money uses the PGPascii-armored message format for all communication between the server andclient. All traffic is encrypted, and messages from the server to the clientare signed. Untraceability is provided by a Chaum-style blind signature.Note that the blind signature is patented, as is RSA. Using it forexperimental purposes only shouldn't get you in trouble. Digicash isrepresented by discrete coins, the denominations of which are chosen by theserver operator. Coins are RSA-signed, with a different e/d pair for eachdenomination. The server does not store any money. All coins are stored bythe client module. The server accepts old coins and blind- signs new coins,and checks off the old ones on a spent list. sources MagicMoney.tar.gz author Pr0duct Cypher edit application object

-lucre 0.9.0 Unofficial Cypherpunks Release of Chaum's ecash. -lucre is a C library that implements the protocols of DigiCash's ecash.-lucre provides all of the basic things you would like (payment requests,payments, deposits, withdrawals, opening accounts), as well as a fewadvanced features (like the ability to use the same account on multiplemachines, and the ability to use ecash without having a bank account atall). The format of the wallet is somewhat different from that of DigiCash'sstandard client, so you have to be careful if you want to use use both thatand -lucre with the same bank account. It does seem to work, though. sources lucre-0.9.0.tar.gz author Anonymous edit application object

ncash 19971216 An efficient off-line electronic cash system based on the representation problem. Experimental implementation of an off-line electronic cash system based onthe representation problem. From the documentation, "Our system is the firstto be based entirely on descrete logarithms. Using the representationproblem as a basic concept, some techniques are introduced that enable us toconstruct protocols for withdrawl and payment that do not use the cut andchoose methodology of earlier systems. As a concequence, our cash system ismuch more efficient in both computation and communication complexity thanpreviously proposed systems.". The technical paper is mirroredhere. sources snapshot.tar.gz author Niels Möller homepage http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/NCash/NCash.html edit application object

$Id: application-index.html,v 0.24 1999/09/16 14:13:43 root Exp $ munitions.vipul.net Amsterdam, Netherlands mirror &copy 1999-2001, Vipul Ved Prakash. Thanks to xs4all for providing the resoruces to host this site.

Mirrored Text (for posterity, not karma): C|Net has an interesting editorial

Perspective: Tech's answer to Big Brother - Tech News - CNET.com CNET tech sites: Price comparisons | Product reviews | Tech news | Downloads | Site map News.context: Special Reports | Newsmakers | Perspectives Perspective: Tech's answer to Big Brother By Declan McCullagh December 16, 2002, 4:00 AM PT WASHINGTON-Why is everyone so surprised that the U.S. government wants to create a Total Information Awareness database with details about everything you do?

This is an unsurprising result of having so much information about our lives archived on the computers of our credit card companies, our banks, our health insurance companies and government agencies.

Now a Defense Department agency is devising a way to link these different systems together to create a kind of digital alter ego of each of us. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this proposed centralization was inevitable-and it's only going to get worse.

Blame retired Admiral John Poindexter, national security adviser for former President Ronald Reagan, who returned to the Pentagon in February to run a creepy new agency that's trying to create this mammoth surveillance and information-analysis system. It's called Total Information Awareness, and it's funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's a good idea, or that it's consistent with the traditional American values of limited government and a sharp demarcation between the private and the public sector. I'm not even sure if Poindexter's brainchild could ever work.

What I am saying is that if our personal information-some of it extraordinarily sensitive-is archived in corporate or government databases and protected only by the weak shield of the law, it's vulnerable to federal snoops.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this proposed centralization was inevitable-and it's only going to get worse. When a nation is responding to perilous threats, politicians tend to repeal privacy laws in a femtosecond. The current process started with overwhelming votes for the USA Patriot Act last year. (It cleared the Senate with only one "nay" vote, from the courageous Russ Feingold, D-Wisc.) And if another terrorist attack happens, all bets are off.

That's why simply enacting laws and trusting to the government to protect our privacy can be a very dangerous thing. Just ask the Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. New research says they were selected using Census Bureau data-data that was handed over to the government in strict confidence. Or ask the people who were robbed by the former chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department, who pleaded guilty last year to using law enforcement databases to plot crimes.

Technology offers a better way to preserve our rights against government overreaching. New crises may prompt Congress to vote unanimously to skewer the Bill of Rights. But technological protections don't vary with the whims of politicians or shifts in Supreme Court majorities.

The sad thing is that for years we've known about technology that can slow down this mass "databasification" of American society. We just haven't used it.

One approach is outlined in Peter Wayner's useful book, "Translucent Databases." It describes methods-complete with Java code that produces standard SQL (Structured Query Language)-to construct databases that use one-way functions to scramble data and shield it from prying eyes.

New crises may prompt Congress to vote unanimously to skewer the Bill of Rights. But technological protections don't vary with the whims of politicians or shifts in Supreme Court majorities. "The main goal I had with writing the book is to show it is possible to build a database that does useful work and solves problems without keeping personal information," Wayner said. "At first it seems counterintuitive. You figure that if you're going to arrange appointments and keep track of what customers bought in the past, you need the information there. But it turns out it's possible (to scramble it), and it can make the database smaller and faster, too."

A basic example is the venerable Unix password file, which doesn't store any actual passwords. Instead, the operating system scrambles a user's password using a one-way hash function and saves the scrambled version to the file. Because the function cannot be reversed, the database is secure if viewed by a malicious hacker, but users can still log in.

More importantly, even if Poindexter obtained that file through a court order or some more surreptitious method, assuming the encryption algorithm worked properly, he wouldn't be able to extract anyone's actual passwords from it.

Wayner's book provides tips that more programmers should follow. He shows how to build an encrypted department store database using a one-way function that can't divulge personal information unless a customer's full name is supplied. Other examples include encrypted car rental databases and lotteries.

A second approach was invented by Stefan Brands, previously a scientist at Zero Knowledge Systems, who outlined it in a book titled "Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy."

Brands describes a remarkable technology called limited disclosure certificates. It's a pre-emptive response to current trends in authentication, where you might end up using one digital ID certificate for everything from driving to shopping to health care-and all your information and transactions would instantly appear in Poindexter's database.

Limited disclosure certificates solve that centralization problem. They use a clever bit of mathematics to protect the identity of honest people, but reveal the identity of people who attempt to commit fraud. As soon as you try to cheat someone, the privacy protection evaporates.

Brands predicts in his book how a limited disclosure certificate would work on a smart card: "Any data leakage from and to the smart card can be blocked. The cardholder can even prevent his or her smart card from developing information that would help the card issuer to trade the cardholders' transactions, should the card contents become available to the card issuer. Transactions can be completed within as little as 1/20th of a second, so that road-toll and public transport applications are entirely feasible."

In an interview, Brands added that "instead of all this information about you being managed in central databases, you could manage it yourself. In theory, all the data that organizations hold about you and need to make decisions about you could be distributed to you.

"If you use good cryptography, the organizations' information is protected: You can't modify the information. At the same time, you would then be able to disclose whatever you need for a particular purpose."

MIT professor Ron Rivest described Brands' work as imparting a way for people to remain anonymous and yet convince an Internet service provider that they are a paid subscriber. The beauty is that the user's sessions are unlinkable-the ISP can't even tell if an user currently logged in is the same as the user who used the service at a previous time.

It's true that Congress could outlaw Wayner's and Brands' techniques and force all information to be stored in a surveillance-enabled way. But until that happens, we don't have to make it any easier for Poindexter and his snoops.

More Perspectives

biography Declan McCullagh is the Washington correspondent for CNET News.com, chronicling the ever-busier intersection between technology and politics. Before that, he worked for several years as Washington bureau chief for Wired News. He has also worked as a reporter for The Netly News, Time magazine and HotWired. Search News.com All CNET The Web

"'Geeks make new stuff primarily because it's fun, because it's useful, and because they can [G]. Suits make new stuff primarily because they hope to earn a profit. Yes, that is an oversimplification, and there's overlap between the two types -- there are plenty of profit-seeking geeks and geeky business folks. Still, the distinction is real.'"

Mirrored here (for posterity, not karma): because they can

By Scott Rosenberg

Dec. 13, 2002 | The technology industry has long been shaped by the creative tension between technologists and businesspeople, otherwise known as geeks and suits. Geeks make new stuff primarily because it's fun, because it's useful, and because they can. Suits make new stuff primarily because they hope to earn a profit. Yes, that is an oversimplification, and there's overlap between the two types -- there are plenty of profit-seeking geeks and geeky business folks. Still, the distinction is real.

You'd think that, today, with the tech industry in its worst downturn in memory, jobs scarce and funding scarcer, bottom-line thinking would dominate. Instead, the recent cratering of so many companies seems to have chastened the suits -- and the very absence of get-rich-quick opportunities has cleared a space for geek enthusiasms to flourish.

That was certainly the feeling I got from this week's Supernova conference on decentralization -- a gathering in Palo Alto, Calif., for which the ber-geeks of Silicon Valley and beyond (to use the label suggested by one of the software-industry legends in attendance) turned out in full force.

There was Bob Frankston, who'd coded VisiCalc, the personal computer's first "killer app," and a row behind him sat Mitch Kapor, whose Lotus 1-2-3 replaced VisiCalc as the spreadsheet of choice in the early '80s. There were Marc Canter (creator of Director and other multimedia tools) and Dave Winer (creator of Radio and other blogging and outlining tools), double-teaming a Microsoft exec on the issue of patents.

When I think about you... I TOUCH MY ELF! - ebaynham.com

Prominent bloggers swarmed the place, keeping up a keyboard-click chorus as they logged speakers' comments in real time. (Mitch Ratcliffe offers a good list here.) The blogging was so thorough that, though my Salon duties kept me in the office on the conference's second day, I could keep up with the event pretty well. Thank you, decentralization!

Conference organizer Kevin Werbach admitted that his "decentralization" label was "ugly," but suggested that its very awkwardness was a sign that we were dealing with an underlying trend rather than a "marketing-concocted theme." And he was right: The phenomena this event focused on, a grab bag of new technologies that have bubbled up from the humbled high-tech world in the post-crash era, are mostly geek driven and grassroots spread: Wi-Fi (802.11b), the wireless high-speed Net access method; blogs; and "Web services," a fuzzy term to describe new methods of directly and quickly connecting software applications and data across the Net.

These disparate boomlets share an "end to end" design: They rely on the power of individual users' computers -- there's no big, centrally operated piece of software or hardware mediating. The users connect across an open, "stupid" network -- the Internet itself, today -- that simply moves information without worrying about what it is. The resulting software is ad hoc, impromptu, flexible, "lightweight." Empowered individuals at the ends of the network try out new ideas and build myriad new services. It's geek heaven.

Next page | But, but, but ... where's the business model?1, 2

The Free Software Project Read Andrew Leonard's book-in-progress on Linux and open source -- and post your comments.

Salon Search Directory -->About Salon Table Talk Advertise in Salon Investor Relations

Arts & Entertainment | Books | Comics | Life | News | PeoplePolitics | Sex | Tech & Business and The Free Software Project | AudioLetters | Columnists | Salon Plus | Salon Gear

Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibitedCopyright 2002 Salon.com Salon, 22 4th Street, 16th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103Telephone 415 645-9200 | Fax 415 645-9204E-mail | Salon.com Privacy Policy | Terms of Service

"'Geeks make new stuff primarily because it's fun, because it's useful, and because they can [G]. Suits make new stuff primarily because they hope to earn a profit. Yes, that is an oversimplification, and there's overlap between the two types -- there are plenty of profit-seeking geeks and geeky business folks. Still, the distinction is real.'"

Mirrored here (for posterity, not karma): because they can

By Scott Rosenberg

Dec. 13, 2002 | The technology industry has long been shaped by the creative tension between technologists and businesspeople, otherwise known as geeks and suits. Geeks make new stuff primarily because it's fun, because it's useful, and because they can. Suits make new stuff primarily because they hope to earn a profit. Yes, that is an oversimplification, and there's overlap between the two types -- there are plenty of profit-seeking geeks and geeky business folks. Still, the distinction is real.

You'd think that, today, with the tech industry in its worst downturn in memory, jobs scarce and funding scarcer, bottom-line thinking would dominate. Instead, the recent cratering of so many companies seems to have chastened the suits -- and the very absence of get-rich-quick opportunities has cleared a space for geek enthusiasms to flourish.

That was certainly the feeling I got from this week's Supernova conference on decentralization -- a gathering in Palo Alto, Calif., for which the ber-geeks of Silicon Valley and beyond (to use the label suggested by one of the software-industry legends in attendance) turned out in full force.

There was Bob Frankston, who'd coded VisiCalc, the personal computer's first "killer app," and a row behind him sat Mitch Kapor, whose Lotus 1-2-3 replaced VisiCalc as the spreadsheet of choice in the early '80s. There were Marc Canter (creator of Director and other multimedia tools) and Dave Winer (creator of Radio and other blogging and outlining tools), double-teaming a Microsoft exec on the issue of patents.

When I think about you... I TOUCH MY ELF! - ebaynham.com

Prominent bloggers swarmed the place, keeping up a keyboard-click chorus as they logged speakers' comments in real time. (Mitch Ratcliffe offers a good list here.) The blogging was so thorough that, though my Salon duties kept me in the office on the conference's second day, I could keep up with the event pretty well. Thank you, decentralization!

Conference organizer Kevin Werbach admitted that his "decentralization" label was "ugly," but suggested that its very awkwardness was a sign that we were dealing with an underlying trend rather than a "marketing-concocted theme." And he was right: The phenomena this event focused on, a grab bag of new technologies that have bubbled up from the humbled high-tech world in the post-crash era, are mostly geek driven and grassroots spread: Wi-Fi (802.11b), the wireless high-speed Net access method; blogs; and "Web services," a fuzzy term to describe new methods of directly and quickly connecting software applications and data across the Net.

These disparate boomlets share an "end to end" design: They rely on the power of individual users' computers -- there's no big, centrally operated piece of software or hardware mediating. The users connect across an open, "stupid" network -- the Internet itself, today -- that simply moves information without worrying about what it is. The resulting software is ad hoc, impromptu, flexible, "lightweight." Empowered individuals at the ends of the network try out new ideas and build myriad new services. It's geek heaven.

Next page | But, but, but ... where's the business model?1, 2

The Free Software Project Read Andrew Leonard's book-in-progress on Linux and open source -- and post your comments.

Salon Search Directory -->About Salon Table Talk Advertise in Salon Investor Relations

Arts & Entertainment | Books | Comics | Life | News | PeoplePolitics | Sex | Tech & Business and The Free Software Project | AudioLetters | Columnists | Salon Plus | Salon Gear

Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibitedCopyright 2002 Salon.com Salon, 22 4th Street, 16th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103Telephone 415 645-9200 | Fax 415 645-9204E-mail | Salon.com Privacy Policy | Terms of Service

"In the Star Tribune [G], they write that "PC games fell 6.2 percent through the first 10 months of this year, making the first such decline ever." They go on to say that consoles will break record sales this year, and that there is a shift towards console gaming from PC. Is this due to the fact that there are now three major contenders (XBox, Playstation 2, Game Cube) and all the advanced features they offer (DVD ability on the first two etc)? I, for one, will continue with my Battlefield 1942 on my PC."

Mirrored Link: Star Tribune

Console games are winning the sales race with PC games news freetime - travel - homezone - cars - shopping - workavenue - communities metro / region - nation / world - politics - business - sports - variety - opinion - fun & games - talk index ap business news ap finanzas technology business calendar business forum company earnings reports company press releases consumer news data bank everybody's business photos business projects 2002: economic forecast due diligence: corporations and accounting practices mall of america 10th anniversary mn tobacco settlement star tribune 100 executive compensation executive compensation --> top 25 grantmakers nonprofit 100 banking on women venture capital --> archivestories photo reprints projects contact us corrections feedback Console games are winning the sales race with PC games Steve AlexanderStar Tribune Published Dec. 11, 2002GAME11

There is a war being fought for the hearts of consumers who love games. On one side is the venerable PC, on the other side the video-game console.

The consoles are winning.

The NPD Group of Port Washington, N.Y., is expected to announce today that unit sales of PC games fell 6.2 percent through the first 10 months of this year, marking the first such decline ever.

Meanwhile, NPD projects that console video-game sales will break all sales records this year, with hardware and software sales totaling more than $10 billion, up from $9.4 billion in 2001. Of that, about $5 billion represents video-game sales. PC game sales are projected to reach only $1.4 billion, or flat with 2001, said Steve Koenig, an analyst at NPD's PC software tracking division.

"The shift to buying video games is definitely the main reason behind flagging sales of PC games," Koenig said.

Game consoles now rival PCs in the quality of game play, graphics and sound, and recently have entered online gaming, formerly available only on PCs, he said.

Consumers whose primary interest is gaming can more economically buy a $150 Nintendo GameCube or a $200 Microsoft Xbox or Sony PlayStation 2 than a PC, which costs a minimum of $500 and typically is closer to $1,000.

Video games also have benefited from the growth in the game-playing population, which is due to the aging crowd of players who cut their teeth on PC games, before the advent of improved console machines, such as Sony's first PlayStation.

Studies have shown that people of all ages play some computer games, but the bulk of the audience for both video games and PC games now is 34 and younger, said Richard Ow, another NPD analyst.

Advertising

The shift to video games has been evident in TV advertising this season. Two of the most-advertised titles -- "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell," about a stealthy spy, and "007 Nightfire," about the glitzy adventures of James Bond -- have been advertised for use on a console, not a PC.

The shift to the video-game console as the chief game-playing machine began with the fall 2000 introduction of the Sony PlayStation 2 and accelerated last fall with the availability of the Microsoft Xbox, Koenig said. Until the introduction of the PlayStation 2, PC games always were a little more sophisticated and capable, while console games generally were regarded as being for younger children, he said.

"PlayStation 2 changed things, likely forever. It began a shift over to the console form of gaming," Koenig said. "For game players, there may be some surprise that this has happened so quickly. I think maybe they expected it over a three-to four-year period."

Game developers appear to have seen the trend coming. From January through October this year, they produced 9.6 percent fewer new PC titles than they did a year ago, or 750 titles in 2002 vs. 830 in 2001, Koenig said.

"The game-console market is very hot, and so marketers of gaming software are putting their development dollars into that," he said.

Revenue from PC game sales are projected to remain virtually flat for the full year, despite the unit sales decline, because prices have increased. Some top-selling PC games sell for more than $50, a price once viewed as impregnable, according to NPD, which produces widely followed market research that is based on actual retail sales.

Consumers won't see the apparent decline of the PC game reflected at their local electronics store yet. And in the short term, the greatest impact will be felt by the console makers -- Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

"The real winners are the console companies, because they will be getting more and more licensing fees," Koenig said. Game developers pay licensing fees to the game-console makers for the rights to produce games for a particular console. There are no comparable fees for developing PC games, he said.

PC games still here

But no one is predicting the demise of PC game-playing just yet. Koenig believes PCs are likely to hold on to their core audience of sophisticated game enthusiasts and are likely to continue their lead in online gaming because PCs are more suited to it. Meanwhile, the broader audience is likely to continue to migrate toward the video-game consoles.

"There is a generally held belief that PC games will continue to be under sales pressure from console games in 2003 and likely beyond," Koenig said. "It is painfully evident that PC developers will have to do something to attract game buyers to the PC."

Failure to do so could have a sweeping effect, Koenig said. Games long have been one of the reasons people upgraded to newer PCs, because the games often required faster chips, add-on memory, disk drives and graphics boards in order to function properly. But the absence of such reasons for consumers to upgrade their PCs could be bad news for an industry already hit by slack sales. Consumers already have found that older PCs handle most other computing tasks as well as newer, faster models.

But the future of PCs as game machines is clouded by uncertainty over what next-generation game consoles may look like, Koenig said. He believes consoles may begin to resemble PCs that are in the living room instead of in a home office.

While today's PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles can play games, DVD movies and audio CDs, future consoles also may incorporate TV accessories, such as DVD recorders and personal video recorders, which seek out and record programs by automatically browsing TV listings, he said.

"The Xbox already is half a step toward being a PC in the living room," Koenig said. "The next-generation game consoles might look more like PCs and are likely to offer a great deal of utility."

-- Steve Alexander is at alex@startribune.com.

Return to top Copyright 2002 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. Utilities Email this storyPrint this story Search News Classifieds Advertising Web More search options

"In the Star Tribune [G], they write that "PC games fell 6.2 percent through the first 10 months of this year, making the first such decline ever." They go on to say that consoles will break record sales this year, and that there is a shift towards console gaming from PC. Is this due to the fact that there are now three major contenders (XBox, Playstation 2, Game Cube) and all the advanced features they offer (DVD ability on the first two etc)? I, for one, will continue with my Battlefield 1942 on my PC."

Mirrored Link: Star Tribune

Console games are winning the sales race with PC games news freetime - travel - homezone - cars - shopping - workavenue - communities metro / region - nation / world - politics - business - sports - variety - opinion - fun & games - talk index ap business news ap finanzas technology business calendar business forum company earnings reports company press releases consumer news data bank everybody's business photos business projects 2002: economic forecast due diligence: corporations and accounting practices mall of america 10th anniversary mn tobacco settlement star tribune 100 executive compensation executive compensation --> top 25 grantmakers nonprofit 100 banking on women venture capital --> archivestories photo reprints projects contact us corrections feedback Console games are winning the sales race with PC games Steve AlexanderStar Tribune Published Dec. 11, 2002GAME11

There is a war being fought for the hearts of consumers who love games. On one side is the venerable PC, on the other side the video-game console.

The consoles are winning.

The NPD Group of Port Washington, N.Y., is expected to announce today that unit sales of PC games fell 6.2 percent through the first 10 months of this year, marking the first such decline ever.

Meanwhile, NPD projects that console video-game sales will break all sales records this year, with hardware and software sales totaling more than $10 billion, up from $9.4 billion in 2001. Of that, about $5 billion represents video-game sales. PC game sales are projected to reach only $1.4 billion, or flat with 2001, said Steve Koenig, an analyst at NPD's PC software tracking division.

"The shift to buying video games is definitely the main reason behind flagging sales of PC games," Koenig said.

Game consoles now rival PCs in the quality of game play, graphics and sound, and recently have entered online gaming, formerly available only on PCs, he said.

Consumers whose primary interest is gaming can more economically buy a $150 Nintendo GameCube or a $200 Microsoft Xbox or Sony PlayStation 2 than a PC, which costs a minimum of $500 and typically is closer to $1,000.

Video games also have benefited from the growth in the game-playing population, which is due to the aging crowd of players who cut their teeth on PC games, before the advent of improved console machines, such as Sony's first PlayStation.

Studies have shown that people of all ages play some computer games, but the bulk of the audience for both video games and PC games now is 34 and younger, said Richard Ow, another NPD analyst.

Advertising

The shift to video games has been evident in TV advertising this season. Two of the most-advertised titles -- "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell," about a stealthy spy, and "007 Nightfire," about the glitzy adventures of James Bond -- have been advertised for use on a console, not a PC.

The shift to the video-game console as the chief game-playing machine began with the fall 2000 introduction of the Sony PlayStation 2 and accelerated last fall with the availability of the Microsoft Xbox, Koenig said. Until the introduction of the PlayStation 2, PC games always were a little more sophisticated and capable, while console games generally were regarded as being for younger children, he said.

"PlayStation 2 changed things, likely forever. It began a shift over to the console form of gaming," Koenig said. "For game players, there may be some surprise that this has happened so quickly. I think maybe they expected it over a three-to four-year period."

Game developers appear to have seen the trend coming. From January through October this year, they produced 9.6 percent fewer new PC titles than they did a year ago, or 750 titles in 2002 vs. 830 in 2001, Koenig said.

"The game-console market is very hot, and so marketers of gaming software are putting their development dollars into that," he said.

Revenue from PC game sales are projected to remain virtually flat for the full year, despite the unit sales decline, because prices have increased. Some top-selling PC games sell for more than $50, a price once viewed as impregnable, according to NPD, which produces widely followed market research that is based on actual retail sales.

Consumers won't see the apparent decline of the PC game reflected at their local electronics store yet. And in the short term, the greatest impact will be felt by the console makers -- Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

"The real winners are the console companies, because they will be getting more and more licensing fees," Koenig said. Game developers pay licensing fees to the game-console makers for the rights to produce games for a particular console. There are no comparable fees for developing PC games, he said.

PC games still here

But no one is predicting the demise of PC game-playing just yet. Koenig believes PCs are likely to hold on to their core audience of sophisticated game enthusiasts and are likely to continue their lead in online gaming because PCs are more suited to it. Meanwhile, the broader audience is likely to continue to migrate toward the video-game consoles.

"There is a generally held belief that PC games will continue to be under sales pressure from console games in 2003 and likely beyond," Koenig said. "It is painfully evident that PC developers will have to do something to attract game buyers to the PC."

Failure to do so could have a sweeping effect, Koenig said. Games long have been one of the reasons people upgraded to newer PCs, because the games often required faster chips, add-on memory, disk drives and graphics boards in order to function properly. But the absence of such reasons for consumers to upgrade their PCs could be bad news for an industry already hit by slack sales. Consumers already have found that older PCs handle most other computing tasks as well as newer, faster models.

But the future of PCs as game machines is clouded by uncertainty over what next-generation game consoles may look like, Koenig said. He believes consoles may begin to resemble PCs that are in the living room instead of in a home office.

While today's PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles can play games, DVD movies and audio CDs, future consoles also may incorporate TV accessories, such as DVD recorders and personal video recorders, which seek out and record programs by automatically browsing TV listings, he said.

"The Xbox already is half a step toward being a PC in the living room," Koenig said. "The next-generation game consoles might look more like PCs and are likely to offer a great deal of utility."

-- Steve Alexander is at alex@startribune.com.

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"On December 14, 1900, Max Planck [G] presented experimental results in front of the German Physical Society and announced that they could best be explained if energy exists in discrete packets, which he called "quanta." Today is the 100th birthday of Quantum Physics [G]."

"On December 14, 1900, Max Planck [G] presented experimental results in front of the German Physical Society and announced that they could best be explained if energy exists in discrete packets, which he called "quanta." Today is the 100th birthday of Quantum Physics [G]."

"Tired of being young and healthy? Now you can simulate your own old age [G]. This story describes a sensory-modification suit which, among other things, selectively blocks out certain sound frequencies, and lets you experience arthritis."

"Tired of being young and healthy? Now you can simulate your own old age [G]. This story describes a sensory-modification suit which, among other things, selectively blocks out certain sound frequencies, and lets you experience arthritis."

"Innocence: Ghost In The Shell as the sequel to Ghost In The Shell, anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii, has been announced [G]. Due out in spring of 2004 in Japan, with Mamoru Oshii as screenplay/director, produced by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G [G], and co-produced by(!) Studio GHIBLI [G]."

"Innocence: Ghost In The Shell as the sequel to Ghost In The Shell, anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii, has been announced [G]. Due out in spring of 2004 in Japan, with Mamoru Oshii as screenplay/director, produced by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G [G], and co-produced by(!) Studio GHIBLI [G]."

Star Wars Galaxies Only to Allow One Character Per Account Games [G] | Posted by chrisd on Saturday December 14, @04:08AM
from the one-one-r2d2-per-customer dept.
frotty writes "The developers of Star Wars Galaxies recently announced [G] that the game would only allow a single character per purchased account on any server. This has outraged some, and relieved others." Click on the link to see the reasoning behind this move.

Star Wars Galaxies Only to Allow One Character Per Account Games [G] | Posted by chrisd on Saturday December 14, @04:08AM
from the one-one-r2d2-per-customer dept.
frotty writes "The developers of Star Wars Galaxies recently announced [G] that the game would only allow a single character per purchased account on any server. This has outraged some, and relieved others." Click on the link to see the reasoning behind this move.

Mandrake News Linux Mandrake [G] | Posted by michael on Saturday December 14, @01:47AM
from the putting-along dept.
DCowern writes "Mandrake yesterday released their FY2001-2002 earnings and I'm glad to say it's looking real good for them. They've cut operating costs by 42% and increased revenues by 31%. They're still not quite in the black yet but they're expecting to break even month-to-month beginning in February. The full report is here [G]. In other news, Mandrake announced two new programs yesterday. The first is Multi Network Firewall [G], which looks like an extremely nice package for running small to medium-sized networks. The second program, and my favorite, is their "OS refugee [G]" offer."

Mandrake News Linux Mandrake [G] | Posted by michael on Saturday December 14, @01:47AM
from the putting-along dept.
DCowern writes "Mandrake yesterday released their FY2001-2002 earnings and I'm glad to say it's looking real good for them. They've cut operating costs by 42% and increased revenues by 31%. They're still not quite in the black yet but they're expecting to break even month-to-month beginning in February. The full report is here [G]. In other news, Mandrake announced two new programs yesterday. The first is Multi Network Firewall [G], which looks like an extremely nice package for running small to medium-sized networks. The second program, and my favorite, is their "OS refugee [G]" offer."

Linux Port of Disciples 2 Announced Games [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @02:55PM
from the linux-gaming-now-slightly-less-feeble dept.
bobz writes "Happypenguin [G] is reporting [G] that Linux Game Publishing [G] has announced the next game they'll port to Linux will be Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy [G] a turn-based strategy game that was well-reviewed but not terribly successful commercially. /me breathes a sigh of relief that it's not another first-person shooter."

Linux Port of Disciples 2 Announced Games [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @02:55PM
from the linux-gaming-now-slightly-less-feeble dept.
bobz writes "Happypenguin [G] is reporting [G] that Linux Game Publishing [G] has announced the next game they'll port to Linux will be Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy [G] a turn-based strategy game that was well-reviewed but not terribly successful commercially. /me breathes a sigh of relief that it's not another first-person shooter."

SBC-Yahoo Partnership Cuts User Privacy Privacy [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @04:17PM
from the yahoo-knows-you're-a-dog dept.
simeonbeta2 writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is running a story [G] about Pac Bell's dsl partnership with Yahoo. Initially touted as a new service, Pac Bell is apparently now mailing existing dsl customers to urge them to install additional client software that will enable 'incredible new features and services'. While SBC's privacy policy [G] is not excessively intrusive, use of the new software is covered by Yahoo's privacy policy [G], which is just a bit more Orwellian." The story's a little overblown - Yahoo's privacy policy reads that way because they offer financial services and the like, where they may well need financial information from you to provide the service. The reporter needed to investigate this new software DSL users are being asked to install, and find out what sort of user tracking it enables.

SBC-Yahoo Partnership Cuts User Privacy Privacy [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @04:17PM
from the yahoo-knows-you're-a-dog dept.
simeonbeta2 writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is running a story [G] about Pac Bell's dsl partnership with Yahoo. Initially touted as a new service, Pac Bell is apparently now mailing existing dsl customers to urge them to install additional client software that will enable 'incredible new features and services'. While SBC's privacy policy [G] is not excessively intrusive, use of the new software is covered by Yahoo's privacy policy [G], which is just a bit more Orwellian." The story's a little overblown - Yahoo's privacy policy reads that way because they offer financial services and the like, where they may well need financial information from you to provide the service. The reporter needed to investigate this new software DSL users are being asked to install, and find out what sort of user tracking it enables.

DIRECTV Broadband Shuts Down News [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @05:29PM
from the fatality dept.
Phroggy [G] writes "Effective today (Friday the 13th), DIRECTV Broadband [G] is officially out of business. The company will remain partially operational for the next 60 to 90 days, and we will work to transition our roughly 160,000 customers to another provider. Details are still sketchy. So, anybody gonna be hiring in the Portland area in a couple months?" There's a press release [G] about the shutdown.

DIRECTV Broadband Shuts Down News [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @05:29PM
from the fatality dept.
Phroggy [G] writes "Effective today (Friday the 13th), DIRECTV Broadband [G] is officially out of business. The company will remain partially operational for the next 60 to 90 days, and we will work to transition our roughly 160,000 customers to another provider. Details are still sketchy. So, anybody gonna be hiring in the Portland area in a couple months?" There's a press release [G] about the shutdown.

Geminid Meteor Shower Space [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @06:54PM
from the stardust dept.
Target Practice writes "Is it an asteroid? Is it a comet? Who cares? According to Sky and Telescope's [G] website, 3200 Phaethon has been spewing chunks [G] into our atmosphere for the past 150 years, and tonight, after the lan party, you can step outside at two or three A.M. and see the best light show yet - topping off at 75 meteors per hour! Be there..." Space.com [G] has another story.

Geminid Meteor Shower Space [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @06:54PM
from the stardust dept.
Target Practice writes "Is it an asteroid? Is it a comet? Who cares? According to Sky and Telescope's [G] website, 3200 Phaethon has been spewing chunks [G] into our atmosphere for the past 150 years, and tonight, after the lan party, you can step outside at two or three A.M. and see the best light show yet - topping off at 75 meteors per hour! Be there..." Space.com [G] has another story.

30 Years Since Last Man on the Moon Space [G] | Posted by Hemos on Friday December 13, @10:23PM
from the what's-the-point dept.
Honeydipper Dan writes "December 14 marks the 30th anniversary of the last man on the Moon [G]. I haven't noticed any hoopla about this. Perhaps this event raises the subtext of why we haven't been back a little more than the first Moon landing's 30th anniversary did over 3 years ago. The Apollo 17 mission was a great success, however, and deserves to be remembered. It marked the first (and last) time a geologist was on the surface of the Moon. Meanwhile, NASA [G] is commemorating the Wright brothers' flight of December 17, 1903, getting ready for next year's Centennial of Flight [G]."

30 Years Since Last Man on the Moon Space [G] | Posted by Hemos on Friday December 13, @10:23PM
from the what's-the-point dept.
Honeydipper Dan writes "December 14 marks the 30th anniversary of the last man on the Moon [G]. I haven't noticed any hoopla about this. Perhaps this event raises the subtext of why we haven't been back a little more than the first Moon landing's 30th anniversary did over 3 years ago. The Apollo 17 mission was a great success, however, and deserves to be remembered. It marked the first (and last) time a geologist was on the surface of the Moon. Meanwhile, NASA [G] is commemorating the Wright brothers' flight of December 17, 1903, getting ready for next year's Centennial of Flight [G]."

Jon Johansen Trial Continues The Courts [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @10:53AM
from the grinding-grinding dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Norwegian prosecution has been allowed to change the indictment [G] in their case against "DVD-Jon" Johansen. There is an English [G] language article on Friday's trial proceedings now available." VG.nett [G] is also covering the trial.

Jon Johansen Trial Continues The Courts [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @10:53AM
from the grinding-grinding dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Norwegian prosecution has been allowed to change the indictment [G] in their case against "DVD-Jon" Johansen. There is an English [G] language article on Friday's trial proceedings now available." VG.nett [G] is also covering the trial.

30 Years Since Last Man on the Moon Space [G] | Posted by Hemos on Friday December 13, @10:23PM
from the what's-the-point dept.
Honeydipper Dan writes "December 14 marks the 30th anniversary of the last man on the Moon [G]. I haven't noticed any hoopla about this. Perhaps this event raises the subtext of why we haven't been back a little more than the first Moon landing's 30th anniversary did over 3 years ago. The Apollo 17 mission was a great success, however, and deserves to be remembered. It marked the first (and last) time a geologist was on the surface of the Moon. Meanwhile, NASA [G] is commemorating the Wright brothers' flight of December 17, 1903, getting ready for next year's Centennial of Flight [G]."

30 Years Since Last Man on the Moon Space [G] | Posted by Hemos on Friday December 13, @10:23PM
from the what's-the-point dept.
Honeydipper Dan writes "December 14 marks the 30th anniversary of the last man on the Moon [G]. I haven't noticed any hoopla about this. Perhaps this event raises the subtext of why we haven't been back a little more than the first Moon landing's 30th anniversary did over 3 years ago. The Apollo 17 mission was a great success, however, and deserves to be remembered. It marked the first (and last) time a geologist was on the surface of the Moon. Meanwhile, NASA [G] is commemorating the Wright brothers' flight of December 17, 1903, getting ready for next year's Centennial of Flight [G]."

Hardware Bits Hardware [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @08:47PM
from the bit-o-honey dept.
Zygo writes "Again a little bit of hardware news for today: At MonkeyReview [G] a very cool case... At DV Hardware [G] a little article about an aluminium mousepad, called the Steelpad... OCCanada [G] takes a look at the Gigabyte GA8PE667-Pro... ExtremeMHz [G] brings you a guide to power... Some Christmas stuff [G]... And Modthebox [G] checks out a cool tachometer for PC's!" richie2000 submits a holiday-themed case mod: "A gingerbread [G] case mod [G]. Don't tell me you didn't see this one coming. And here's [G] a mirror of one of the images."

Hardware Bits Hardware [G] | Posted by michael on Friday December 13, @08:47PM
from the bit-o-honey dept.
Zygo writes "Again a little bit of hardware news for today: At MonkeyReview [G] a very cool case... At DV Hardware [G] a little article about an aluminium mousepad, called the Steelpad... OCCanada [G] takes a look at the Gigabyte GA8PE667-Pro... ExtremeMHz [G] brings you a guide to power... Some Christmas stuff [G]... And Modthebox [G] checks out a cool tachometer for PC's!" richie2000 submits a holiday-themed case mod: "A gingerbread [G] case mod [G]. Don't tell me you didn't see this one coming. And here's [G] a mirror of one of the images."