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MrM writes "According to the latest press release from G4techTV, G4 will drop the TechTV name in mid-February 2005. This comes as a major step to the old TechTV viewers, as the focused content has become gaming-oriented once more. G4 also released a copy of their "redesigned" logo, but quickly pulled it off the web after release." The article also includes details of "two new series, "Formula D" and "Girls Gone Wired." Formula D appears to be coverage of Drift Racing (because obviously gamers love that), and unfortunately Girls Gone Wired appears to be exactly what you'd expect: Guys ogling video game characters in a beauty pageant.

The best thing about the SpikeTV Video Game Awards show was that it was "only" two hours long. And that's really sad. Now that the business side of gaming has gained some attention, the next hurdle the gaming industry should be attempting to clear is an artistic one: games will never be seen as equals to movies or television if they and the culture that surrounds them are represented the way they were last night. The industry can do better. Read on for my reaction to last night's train wreck of an awards show. The concept of an awards show for video games probably strikes some people as counterintuitive. While movies and television are investments of a handful of hours on the viewer's part, even the shortest story-based games take ten hours or more to complete. The personal nature of the video gaming experience means that gaming is a highly subjective genre of entertainment. Even more so than for movies and television, people have very specific gaming preferences. Attempting to quantify that experience across the board may seem like a bad idea at the outset.

That said, I think that an awards show is a good idea for the industry. At the very least, having an awards show with some gravitas would be a great way to put a public stamp of approval on the hard work that development houses put into their games. Games and movies can both take years to make, with certain games having development cycles longer than the lifespan of the average household pet. That kind of commitment by the artists, developers, designers, and producers should be rewarded in some way. If a game is good, I'm sure the big fat checks they get are plenty of reward. There's still something at work in an awards show, though. I bet if you asked a big name actor who's has been in a financially successful film and also won an award which he remembered more you're going to get "the awards ceremony" as an answer every time.

If an awards show in general is a good idea, I believe the debacle that SpikeTV broadcast last night was actually counter-productive for the gaming industry. As far as I could tell, the show had little to do with games, and everything to do with advertising. "Most Addictive Game Fueled by Mountain Dew"? Come on! If the Oscars had categories like "Best Comedy driven by Ford" or "Best Female in a Leading Role with makeup by Revlon" would you take them seriously? The night was a never-ending cascade of scantily clad women, rap, "extreme" stuff, rap, people who had nothing to do with games, and rap.

It's very interesting to me that, at least in my time zone, just after the awards show ended an episode of X-Play that I really wanted to see came on. Aside from the fact that the X-Play folks are (refreshingly) actual gamers, this particular episode had a piece with Morgan Webb covering the Child's Play charity auction from last week. Seeing Gabe and Tycho in tuxedos was excellent in and of itself. Above and beyond that, the disparity between the crass tenor of the awards show and the tone of the charity auction was striking. From what little I saw of the auction, it didn't seem somber at all. Jokes were cracked and everyone seemed to be having a good time. The difference is that the audience and organizers were there to celebrate games and children in a respectful manner.

And that, for me, is the biggest complaint I have about the awards last night. The show showed absolutely no respect to the games themselves. From the Video Game Ombudsman's commentary: "A selection of graphics adjectives used on the show - "slammin'," "great," "amazing," "hot visually," "so sick." That kind of shallow analysis is why games aren't art in the minds of a lot of people. Katamari Damacy is a very worthwhile game, but graphics and the "slammin-ness" of the game have nothing to do with that. Katamari is a good game because of a great (and simple) design, a development team that purposely looked for a unique style of gameplay, and a quirky and original soundtrack. I want an awards show that actually says things like that.

It could be great, too! The Oscars have a board that votes on the movies, and the Academy members are made of folks from the movie industry. I say the same style would be a useful format for games with some slight changes. The Oscars send around DVDs of all the nominee films to the Academy. Forcing a large group of people to play the number of games that would be required would be just cruel. That would mean hundreds of hours of gameplay just to be qualified to vote. It would be a much better idea to split up the field into bodies of relevant people. Have thirty or so folks involved in the RTS genre, say, from developers to producers to fan site owners review a set of five or six games and then vote accordingly. Have a Media Choice Award where game review organs like Gamespot, Game Informer, and X-Play, who have presumably played most of the field, can have their say. Have voting for the Game of the Year award be an industry-wide event, with everyone from an EA developer to a Sony Online Customer Service Rep to an IGDA member having a chance to say their piece. Voting via website is fine if you're taking a Slashdot poll -- making a representative, evaluative statement about a field of entertainment for an entire year should be slightly more involved.

I have enough problems in my day without having to explain to my family why a show honoring the entertainment I love is populated mostly by underdressed women in angel costumes. Once a year, wouldn't it be nice to put the scruffy, anti-social gamer stereotype behind us? To sit down and watch some very intelligent people in tuxedos and gowns get their due for providing us so much entertainment? Seriously, wouldn't it be great to see John Carmack present an award? Or get to listen to a Wil Wright acceptance speech? A gaming awards show taken seriously would be a sight to see. Even if that never happens, please -- enough with the Spike-style awards shows.

Thanks to nikkisaindon for the heads up about some goings on over at G4TechTV. Apparently, Unscrewed with Martin Sargent has been cancelled, and according to Alex Albrecht's blog most of The Screen Savers staff has been let go as well (including Yoshi).

KaiEl writes "An avalanche of glowing reviews has already made Halo 2 the second-highest ranked game of all time on GameRankings.com. Looking for an alternative viewpoint? The Video Game Ombudsman has gathered the bad points from nine separate Halo 2 reviews into the only negative review of Halo 2 you're ever likely to read. Useful as a cautionary tale about out-of-context quoting and as a reference manual for rampant Microsoft haters who might want to make the Halo 2 argument a little less one-sided."

Thomas Hawk writes "G4techTV does a review of three of the new HDTV recorders. Noticeably absent is Microsoft's Media Center 2005. The Hughes HD 10-250 gets the highest marks and is the 'G4tech TV Lab Pick.' Although I haven't used the other two HDTV recorders I have to say I would concur on their opinion of TiVo's DirecTV box."

RaD Man [ACiD] writes "Vintage Computer Festival 7.0 will be taking place November 6-7th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California! In addition to the tours of antiquities and computer history galore, VCF 7.0 will be hosting a unique Retro Video Game Programming Challenge and presenting a number of interesting seminar speakers, such as the inventor of FidoNet, Tom Jennings. The VCF founder will also be appearing on G4TechTV's "The Screen Savers" this Tuesday, October 19th, to demonstrate some of his favorite artifacts."

Matt Clare writes "G4TechTV will play the regular NHL season via EA Sports NHL game. G4TechTV Canada subsriptions might get a bigger boost than when they picked up Leo Laport."

jnazario writes "As a computer security professional, one of the things I notice is that for our proposals to be effective, they often require the participation of the vast majority of computer users out there. Almost all of them are not computer security professionals, so it's imperative that our methods be usable by the non-professionals. What makes this even worse is that most computer users are not terribly savvy about what they're using. Terms like hard drives and memory don't mean anything to them, and a browser is just a window to the internet. A computer is a tool for information use, not an end in itself. So, a book like Security Alert: Stories of Real People Protecting Themselves from Identity Theft, Scams and Viruses sounded like it had real promise." Read on for Nazario's review of the book. Security Alert: Stories of Real People Protecting Themselves from Identity Theft, Scams and Viruses author Becky Worley pages 266 publisher Pearson Education rating 3/10 reviewer Jose Nazario ISBN 0735713529 summary Real world tips for regular people to protect themselvs online

If it can communicate threats and solutions effectively to the average computer user, then we're making real progress. After all, even computer security professionals often fail to employ basic measures to protect themselves from typical attacks, we'll have to make sure this stuff is understandable by the general population. Not that they're the "great unwashed" -- hardly. They're just not focusing on this stuff. Hence, we have a challenge: make this stuff understandable by your mom if you want everyone to just get it.

Becky Worley is (was? I haven't watched TechTV in a while) a TechTV on-air personality. She's reported news and events for TechTV for a number of years, and has often done so clearly and at a level you'd expect for a general TV station devoted to technology issues. So, you'd think she'd be a in a great position to collect information and know how to present it. Sadly, Worley's book doesn't fit that niche; it's not going to educate the large masses. In putting myself in the shoes of an average computer user, I found it fails in a number of ways.

The first and foremost failure of the book is right from the beginning. Worley opens up by saying that you're not a target of hackers, yet the rest of the book goes on to discuss how you are. While you're probably not going to be attacked by the same people who try and break in to Pentagon computer networks, virus writers and con artists fall into the same category for most purposes. All of these sorts of people, and what they can do, is described in chapter 1.

There's no discussion of phishing in the chapter on identity theft, which is chapter 2. Identity theft is a large, complicated subject, yet Worley only focuses on credit card number theft. While she talks about social security numbers, she doesn't demonstrate how they have been used to destroy victims' lives. Some advice is given as to how to react to credit card theft, but little information is given here about how to protect yourself to begin with, aside from being careful about whom you give your SSN to.

The book repeats itself often, covering similar material in several places. Chapter 3, which covers online purchasing, covers credit card info theft and email scams again. What it doesn't cover very well is how to spot a legitimate website, how to really use an escrow service, if and how you can get eBay or a shipper to help you out of a scam auction, and the like. Useful information about verifying who owns a certificate for an SSL server, or even making sure you're using an SSL server, is not given. Examples of false websites and auctions would have been useful. After all, after telling us how scammers operate and look so legitimate, illustrating the points about how to spot them would be valuable.

The book is full of anecdotes but few useful pieces of information are placed where they need to be. Chapter 4, which covers viruses, is one of these examples. It spends most of its time covering typical viruses and the usual, but doesn't get into anything beyond "use antivirus software." Never mind that the biggest threat in recent years has been from automated worms and that personal firewalls are useful; that's covered later. We hope you remember the quick tutorial on viruses from before.

The book's organization is poor, with material scattered throughout the book in a fashion that doesn't progress well or develop the information seamlessly. More virus and scam information is placd in Chapter 5, along with virus hoaxes. Several websites are refered to, but little in the way of really spotting a virus hoax or the common scam. Since they still abound, and people still fall prey to them, couldn't a better job have been done to describe what people are looking at have been offered?

In short, the book is a decent collection of links and material but is so poorly organized or so thinly presented it's hard to get what's going on. Take chapters 6 and 7, "Safe and Sane Online Interactions" and "Protecting the Family." Lots of information, somewhat poorly organized, and very skimpy on content. It seems to me that worrying about who is pestering my kids is more important than hearing about someone's EverQuest addiction, so that was a wasted page.

Finally, Chapters 8 and 9 should have been moved up front more. The topic of chapter 8, "Privacy," is perfect for the topics in chapter 2, where worley talks about identity theft. The topics covered here, including spyware and key loggers, are far more germane to the threat against your privacy and bank account information, and have been a growing trend for at least a couple of years. Chapter 9, differentiating being safe and being paranoid, should have been placed up front to help temper the arguments given in the rest of the book. It does a decent job of articulating the threats, what's to fear, and what's at stake.

The book is laden with plenty of anecdotes about online activitis gone awry. What's missing are solid examples of how to do it right, how to use your credit card on trusted sites safely and ensure that you're using services you know are worthwhile. While the book has some useful information in it, it's buried under poor organization, unclear language and presentation, and finally repetition in all the wrong places.

While the world needs a book or two to help every day people understand online security, this isn't the one. If you're looking for something for your kids, your spouse, or your parents, keep looking. This book wont help them make sense of what's going on. I don't think that's too much to ask for, especially from an organization like TechTV which has access to lots of material, people, and motive to produce a solid book.

You can purchase Security Alert: Stories of Real People Protecting Themselves from Identity Theft, Scams and Viruses from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing G4TechTV's recently filmed 'G-Phoria' videogame awards show, due to be shown on August 6th, in which, according to the reporter, "Carmen Electra... and her rocker-husband Dave Navarro played it up as hosts of the second annual awards show, but in reality, the event was overshadowed by the first appearance of the final version of Doom 3 at the postshow party." IGN PS2 has more information on the winners, including "Ryu Hayabusa of Ninja Gaiden fame (Favorite Character), Tony Hawk's Underground (Alt Sports Award), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Best Innovation), and Viewtiful Joe (Best New Franchise). The ultimate award, Game of the Year, went to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic." GameSpot's article also reveals that "sources [at the awards] let on that Majesco had picked up Tim Schafer's Psychonauts and will publish the game in early 2005", and elsewhere, Anna Nicole Smith's cosplay attempts (Ivy from Soul Calibur II, Farah from Prince Of Persia) were another 'highlight'.

Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing G4TechTV's recently filmed 'G-Phoria' videogame awards show, due to be shown on August 6th, in which, according to the reporter, "Carmen Electra... and her rocker-husband Dave Navarro played it up as hosts of the second annual awards show, but in reality, the event was overshadowed by the first appearance of the final version of Doom 3 at the postshow party." IGN PS2 has more information on the winners, including "Ryu Hayabusa of Ninja Gaiden fame (Favorite Character), Tony Hawk's Underground (Alt Sports Award), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Best Innovation), and Viewtiful Joe (Best New Franchise). The ultimate award, Game of the Year, went to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic." GameSpot's article also reveals that "sources [at the awards] let on that Majesco had picked up Tim Schafer's Psychonauts and will publish the game in early 2005", and elsewhere, Anna Nicole Smith's cosplay attempts (Ivy from Soul Calibur II, Farah from Prince Of Persia) were another 'highlight'.

SishGupta writes "Load Testing Gmail - fillmybox@gmail.com A few weeks ago, Kevin Rose of the The Screen Savers decided to load test Google's new email service, Gmail. He asked everyone to email him their favourite 5MB attachments to 'fillmybox@gmail.com.' The test Gmail account is now 102% maxed out. You can read about the test and the results at Kevin Rose.com (his weblog)."

Rogerpq3 writes "A G4/Tech TV feature on DOOM 3, offering a history of the DOOM franchise in the words of the folks at id Software. The clip can be found on the air on The DOOM Franchise, episode 310 of a series called 'Icons.' The piece offers clips from DOOM 3 and other games, interview footage, analysis and more, and for those without access to the program. You can download the movie at: 3DGamers, Doom3HQ, Doom3.de, Doom3maps.de, and FileShack. It's really worth the download for any Doom and id fans out there. (Thanks: BluesNews)"

Thanks to PlanetWolfenstein for its forum post revealing id Software's CEO Todd Hollenshead has indicated a sequel to Return To Castle Wolfenstein is being created, as his interview on G4TechTV show Pulse included his indication that the sequel is "currently in development by an 'outside studio'." According to the forum post: "There was no mention of the engine it would be on, but i'm guessing the Doom 3 one will be most likely", and rumormongers are pointing to the Splash Damage website, where the UK developer behind Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and contributions to Doom 3's multi-player mode is hiring, since it's "started production of a new full game based on the cutting-edge Doom 3 engine... in a continuation of our successful collaboration with id Software and Activision."

WebGangsta writes "Comcast announced a new gaming service available to anyone: for a monthly fee of $14.95, subscribers will have unlimited access to more than 60 PC-based games, from mainstream titles to educational software. New titles will be added each month. Games referenced in the press release included Atari's Dead Man's Hand [plus other largely Atari titles from the recently launched, similar Atari On Demand, including Neverwinter Nights and Civilization III: Conquests]. Is this one of the revenue streams Comcast was thinking about developing when they combined G4 with TechTV? Is there really a market for pay-service video games, and was there a lesson to be learned from Sega's attempt at this market (which was priced $2 less just nine years ago)?" Update: 06/02 17:06 GMT by S : Commenters point out Yahoo! is offering a similar service, currently with a greater variety of games.

SlashdotOgre writes "It has finally happened, www.techtv.com is no more. This was somewhat expected after Comcast decided to give the ax. This is a bit of a shame; as many users know, the site was an excellent resource for both product reviews and software. Most noteably, the Call for Help section has disappeared and The Screen Savers only has recent episodes in the Episode History section. If Comcast does own the rights to older material, I do hope they decide to post some of it (but I doubt that will be enough to ge me to watch their "new" network)."

Str8Dog writes "Looks like Comcast has made its plans for the G4 / Tech TV merger public via, G4TechTV.com. The FAQ page list the shows that will be surviving the merger. Call For Help seems to have received the axe. No word is given if the casts will remain the same."

Str8Dog writes "Looks like Comcast has made its plans for the G4 / Tech TV merger public via, G4TechTV.com. The FAQ page list the shows that will be surviving the merger. Call For Help seems to have received the axe. No word is given if the casts will remain the same."