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Tokyo Games Show is almost upon us, and there are already lots of hardworking folks out in Japan covering the pre-events. The first up today is the conference from Konami, running down the titles they'll be showing at this year's event. New titles include DS game Time Hollow, PSP title Silent Hill Origins, Silent Hill V, a Pilates game, and a bunch of content for mobile gamers. They also showed off the new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer, which apparently was full of spoilers. "Kojima moves on to Metal Gear Online. A new trailer runs. An overhead view of a soldier pans down to him being shot at. 'Where Are My Comrades?' reads the screen. We see two squads taking position on two separate roofs. 'Where Are My People Who Need Help?' reads the screen. Teammates help each other up. 'Where Are Those I Must Protect?' More squad tactics are shown, lots of gun fire, missile launchers taking out sentry towers. One fight takes place in a sewer, featuring solid water effects." The Online title will be available for play at the event.

In advance of the Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft threw a press conference today introducing their newest products to the people of Japan. Highlights from the event include the announcement that an updated version of Rez will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade, and that Ninja Gaiden 2 will be an Xbox exclusive when it releases next year. Other announcements include Lost Odyssey's delay to February 2008 for a US release, more titles for Xbox Live including Every Extend Extra Extreme, Ikaruga, Trigger Heart, Exit and Omega Five, two new Xbox controller colors (blue and pink), and the announcement of a new title developed by Tri-Ace and published by Square/Enix: Infinite Undiscovery.

Bombula writes to let us know that Google is "finally succumbing to the power of the almighty dollar" and getting ready to implement image and video ads in sponsored searches.

Columnist Regina Lynn has a look at how online relationships seem to be blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. "The common thread among these stories is that people get deeply involved in online relationships and make decisions about their real lives. Calling any of these online relationships 'fantasy' dismisses the impact they have on the people involved and on those closest to them... I have yet to encounter anything that challenges my core belief: Relationships are real wherever they form."

Panaqqa writes "In a not unexpected move, the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the $11 million awarded to e360 Insight and vacated a permanent injunction against Spamhaus requiring them to stop listing e360 Insight as a spammer. However, the ruling (PDF) does not set aside the default judgement, meaning that Spamhaus has still lost its opportunity to argue the case. The original judge could still impose a monetary judgement, after taking evidence from the spammer as to how much Spamhaus's block had cost them. This is unfortunate considering the legal leverage the recent ruling concerning spyware might have provided for Spamhaus."

Panaqqa writes "In a not unexpected move, the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the $11 million awarded to e360 Insight and vacated a permanent injunction against Spamhaus requiring them to stop listing e360 Insight as a spammer. However, the ruling (PDF) does not set aside the default judgement, meaning that Spamhaus has still lost its opportunity to argue the case. The original judge could still impose a monetary judgement, after taking evidence from the spammer as to how much Spamhaus's block had cost them. This is unfortunate considering the legal leverage the recent ruling concerning spyware might have provided for Spamhaus."

An anonymous reader writes "Building off the design mandates of CALEA, the FBI has constructed a 'point-and-click surveillance system' that creates instant wiretaps on almost any communications device. A thousand pages of restricted documents released under the Freedom of Information Act were required to determine the veracity of this clandestine project, Wired News reports. Called the Digital Collection System Network, it connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure. From the article: 'FBI wiretapping rooms in field offices and undercover locations around the country are connected through a private, encrypted backbone that is separated from the internet. Sprint runs it on the government's behalf. The network allows an FBI agent in New York, for example, to remotely set up a wiretap on a cell phone based in Sacramento, California, and immediately learn the phone's location, then begin receiving conversations, text messages and voicemail pass codes in New York. With a few keystrokes, the agent can route the recordings to language specialists for translation.'"

Wired author Clive Thompson has up an article stating that, with today's jaded audiences, videogames are more effective horror-conveyances than movies. Thompson argues that the removal of the fourth wall, placing the player directly into the story, overcomes the obstacles movie-makers face when telling a scary story. "I'll start down a corridor, hear something freaky up ahead, then freeze in panic. Maybe if I stay quiet the monster will go away? S^!t, maybe it's already headed this way, and I should move! But if I move the monster will hear me ... so maybe I should stay quiet ... gaaaaah! Games already seem like dream states. You're wandering around a strange new world, where you simultaneously are and aren't yourself. This is already an inherently uncanny experience. That's why a well-made horror game feels so claustrophobically like being locked inside a really bad -- by which I mean a really good -- nightmare." Do you agree? Is your favorite scary tale a movie ... or a game? (Silent Hill, I'm looking at you.)

For the fourth year running Gabe and Tycho are throwing the mother of all gamer parties. This year it's located in the downtown area of the Emerald City, and though just one of the three days of panels, game demos, and nerdcore is completed, there's much to discuss. Read on for impressions from a first-time PAX-goer of the best nerd ticket in the city, with details on the Wil Wheaton Keynote, the first PA Q&A session, and a plenty of information on the duo's game On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. Wizards of the Coast

The makers of Dungeons and Dragons are Seattle locals, and as such it should be no surprise that they have a visible presence at the convention. Not only are they running the tabletop gaming / card gaming areas on lower floors, but they're showing off their online efforts in the exhibit hall. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Magic: the Gathering Online this year is Gleemax, the company's answer to the social networking craze.

While the line between Gleemax and D&D Insider isn't very clear right now, that will quickly be addressed once more a more complete version of the social site goes live. An alpha version will be available to muck around with by the end of September, exposing tabletop gamers to the personal blogs and friend list features video gamers take for granted on a number of different sites. Gleemax is also free, and will remain so; D&D Insider will have that pesky fee once it becomes the fully featured content site Wizards envisions.

WotC representatives were also eager to talk about some of the subsites that will tie into Gleemax. They intend to offer a number of services aimed at giving gamers something to do once they've 'found' each other. The Avalon Hill library of boardgames will be made available via one of these sites, using simple graphics to allow gamers to relive classics like Acquire at any time of the day or night. Another site is going to feature independent games, pointing tabletop players at the newest games that might have otherwise slipped under the radar. A third will feature electronic games from the braintrust of tabletop designers Wizards keeps hidden in their vaults. These original games (like most of the other games on offer) will offer unique strategic experiences aimed at a very niche type of gamer.

As the Wizards folks put it, though, "it may be niche, but it's our niche." The company feels very strongly that they know how best to serve the community of tabletop players that participates in Dungeons and Dragons, and attends events like Gen Con. In their view, these players are undeserved by current online communities and most video game publishers. To some extent, they're even looking to invite 3rd parties into the picture. They hope to offer players the ability to show off characters from non Wizards RPGs, making this a cohesive 'MySpace for gamers'.

The idea of Gleemax aside (and despite having the name explained to me it's still kind of unlovable to outsiders), the gaming portals seem like a good idea. While 'yet another site offering blogs and forums' can only inherently be a certain level of interesting, the online board games / indie games / original content seems to perfectly compliment the D&D Insider game table. With the capability to play strategy games, traditional board games, and RPGs all via the web, Wizards feels like they're trying to set up a sort of perpetual online games convention. Conventions like Gen Con are a great thing, not so much for the swag and the new games, as for the chance to see other gamers. Some folks who go to conventions do so because they're quite literally the only time all year they can 'excuse' gaming. Whether they have busy lives or unapproving spouses, their homes are just not places conducive to gaming. Offerings like Wizard's initiative would seem to be an attempt to bring more games directly into peoples' lives. Barring the appearance of a great many folks falling under John Gabriel's Greater Internet F&($wad Theory, this would seem to have a lot of potential.

WoW TCG

This weekend Upper Deck, the makers of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, is releasing the second expansion set for the game. Originally released at Gen Con last year, and with the Dark Portal expansion hot on its heels in February, The Fires of Outlands follows on a (now regular) six month cycle. For those who haven't had a chance to play: Each player fields a hero with a race/class combination that will be very familiar to anyone who has played the Massively Multiplayer Online Game. Classes 'theme' your deck's abilities, with Warriors having extremely aggressive attack moves (based on WoW's abilities) and Priests having various healing spells. Shadow Priests can, of course, still melt faces. There are items and equipment to outfit your hero, just as in the MMOG, and special rare cards are available in expensive 'raid decks'. Resources in the game are quests, cards that can be 'completed' during the course of play to draw more cards from the deck. There are also Ally cards, folks you can invite to your party to aid you in taking out the opposing faction opponent. Together these elements combine to form a TCG with some layers, depth, and a very recognizable flow. There's nothing here that won't be familiar to veteran TCG players, but it's done with a level of polish that will (again) be familiar to Blizzard game players.

The Fires of Outlands series, the newest expansion, continues the trends started in the first set (Heroes of Azeroth) and on Through the Dark Portal. Upper Deck is definitely trying to add some overarching themes with this new set of cards, which further add wrinkles to the already nuanced gameplay. One example of their theming is an effort to tie Ally cards further into specific deck Archetypes. Previously the only cards that relied on a hero's class were Abilities. Now certain allies are most helpful if they appear in a certain class's deck, supporting class abilities like totems for Shaman or Combo Points for Rogues. New class abilities are being added as well, adding to the stable of MMOG powers that have added to the game and further tying the two together. Most interesting are a new series of weapons that aim to allow heroes to attack as often as possible, changing the subtext of the game even further.

Wheaton Keynote

Writer, blogger, and voice actor Wil Wheaton (clevernickname to us) was the keynote speaker at PAX this year, and kicked off Friday evening with a tremendous roar of applause. Wil's impassioned speech ranged the gamut from thoughtful scene-evoking memories of his childhood, to bitter rants about opportunistic game-bashing politicians. Through it all Wil weaved a few themes that resonated very strongly with the enthusiastic crowd. He spoke often of the social nature of games, reminiscing about time spent in arcades in his youth and hours spend playing the Nintendo Entertainment System with his brother. He spoke of the different 'Generations' of gamers in the audience Friday night, rattling off various game catch-phrases to identify what group of games audience members were familiar with. Taking us back with a story of a fateful trip to a corner liquor store for potato chips, he recounted an experience most gamers can probably related to: their very first time playing a video game.

These shared experiences, the implications of social gaming, were the overall message of Wil's speech. The crowd ate it up, on their feet at several times through the event cheering at the author's words. The biggest reactions came from his accounts of his experiences playing games with his children, and the powerful bond that video games can form between family members. Especially Guitar Hero. One anecdote particularly stuck out. Wil related how he was in Vegas for a poker tournament, and received a call from his son Ryan. Having just turned 17, Ryan was interested in finally having the chance to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a game Wil admitted had seen a lot of playtime in his house - after his kids had gone to bed. Seated at a table with a group of other writers, Wil said "Hold on a minute", and turned to the assembled group. He explained the situation, and asked if they thought it was okay. One member of the group spoke up and said, "Does he know that it's not okay to have sex with a hooker, and then kill them to get his money back?" On-stage, Wil paused and put on a thoughtful air. "Hmm," he said. "That's a good question." He mimed putting the phone back to his ear. "Ryan, do you know that if you get a hooker in real life, it's not okay to kill her after she gets out of the car to get your money back?" He paused. The response came: "Well, since hookers are empty shells and not real people ... " The crowd went nuts as Wil beamed proudly across the stage.

Wil closed by coming back to the point that everyone assembled there was, indeed, a gamer. That with every large group there's always some that will make the rest look bad, be they lawyers, doctors, or sports enthusiasts. His message on that point: "Have fun playing games online - but please don't be a dick." His last statements railed against politicians like Hillary Clinton and ambulance-chasers like Jack Thompson that seek to turn the gaming hobby into an opportunity to score political points. His passion was obvious, and at one point someone in the crowd shouted 'Testify!' as Wil paused to draw a breath. It didn't seem entirely out of place. His conclusion was met with thundering applause and a theatre-wide standing ovation. He paused for a long moment to enjoy the applause before departing backstage, obviously pleased that a speech he was sweating fairly hard just a week ago had gone so well.

This was my first opportunity to see Wil speak publicly, and it was immediately obvious why Mike and Jerry had chosen him for the role. He's may not have 'hardcore' geek cred nowadays (time in a Starfleet uniform aside), but then he's also a parent. Parents who game at all get a lot of slack in my eyes. No, Wil was here to speak to us on Friday because he's exactly the kind of gamer that this industry needs more of: well-spoken, confident people who are not only passionate about games but can eloquently get across why games are so very important. It was an amazing experience, and I've heard quite a few people speaking highly of the event in the hallways since.

PA Q&A 1

The keynote was only minutes over when fog began to billow from backstage. The thumping bassline of "Every Day of Hustlin" reverberated through the audience as Mike 'Gabe' Krahulik and Jerry 'Tycho' Holkins strode onstage to huge applause. Their first comment: "If you can arrange it, I recommend you do that at least once in your life." The queue lines formed on both sides of the stage for questions that ranged from the surreal to the hilarious.

Some highlights:

• A hopeful pinball player was a bit taken aback by Jerry's gameface and smack-talk. The Digipen student was obviously unprepared for the statement "Bring a coffin. Bring one per person."
• Between the tracklists of Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2, they tend to feel that the first game is more enduring.
• Jerry will likely never write a stand-alone artless novel as he's 'too lazy'.
• There will never be a PAX 2006 DVD, as most of the footage has been lost.
• When asked how they 'deal with' the popularity of the comic and their success in life, both stated that they essentially don't. Said Jerry, "I don't think we're equipped to handle it."
• The question, "In Bioshock are you saving the Little Sisters or killing them" elicited big smiles. Gabe is doing the right thing, while Jerry has no regrets about his actions.
• They reiterated that the "Rain-slick Precipice" series is very much their version of an animated series.
• The highlight of the event: Jerry was talked into singing the ballad "My Belruel" (which you can hear on Wired's massive piece about the duo). Through the course of the song, which was surprisingly beautiful, engineers behind the scenes added some after-effects. The slight reverb added an otherworldly quality to the melody, which echoed across a dead-silent crowd. Near the end of the performance the crowd took matters into their own hands, and soon the place was full of raised hands filled with glowing DSes, PSPs, and cell phones. Jerry initially didn't notice, as he was primarily singing with his eyes closed. When he finally did register the outpouring of affection he was momentarily taken aback, but didn't allow it to slow his singing. When the song of loss and elf roleplaying ended, he was met with yet another round of huge applause. Obviously moved, he took a moment to wipe some moisture from his eyes as he returned to his cohort at the center of the stage.
• Comics (webcomics in specific) may be a more important component to PAX in the future. Now that they have the space, it's something they want to look into.
• To the question, "Which games would you shove inside Roger Ebert to convince him of gaming's artistic merit", they responded with Bioshock,, Ico, and Shadow of the Colossus.
• Apparently recreating a moment from last year's PAX, an attendee asks for the chance to come onstage with the entrance Gabe and Tycho were allowed. They're amiable, and the man is escorted backstage. After a long moment getting things ready, he returns to thumping bass and smoke; the applause equal the laughter from the audience.
• They discuss criticism from their first trailer, which many viewed as poor looking. Essentially they learned why developers so often fall prey to releasing assets early; they're incredibly excited about what they've done. As Gabe put it, "We remember when it was just grey blocks. It looks way better than grey blocks now."
• The event ended with the announcement of a special guess, Uwe Boll, who would take some time to answer questions from the audience. Gamasutra has a detailed writeup of that exchange.

Overall the panel was a reminder of the very down-to-earth nature of these guys. No question was too awkward or stupid, no request too outlandish to at least consider. From indulging a drug-addled questioner (who never did ask a question) for the better part of five minutes at the mic stand to allowing the nameless attendee onstage for a smoke-enhanced entrance, the duo proved (again) that they're just gamers - there to have a good time like everyone else.

Hothead Games Q&A

A media-only demo and question session with Hothead Games closed out the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo. The developers behind The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, they were onhand to show even more gameplay, story elements, and some excellent 2D animations.

An eerie voice began the event, and set the tone for the Cthulu-noir setting : ""Four gods wait on the windowsill / Where once eight gods did war and will / And if the gods themselves may die / What does that say for you and I?"

The demo showed off the character creation engine, which was available on the show floor yesterday for attendees to play with. These 3D Krahulik-esque avatars will be the player's representation in the game. They're endlessly customizable and, surprisingly, will show up fully realized in the 2D animations along with Gabe and Tycho. The main character's home smashed by FF Prime, your rake-weilding persona takes off after the giant robot with the intent of exacting revenge ... or finding a new place to live. Either way. Gameplay itself consisted of a stretch fighting through hobos on some dirty city streets, a humor-rich discussion of a roach-infested apartment complex, and a boss battle with a golden-maned Slum Lord and his bag o' hobos.

Combat is turn-based strategy, with each character having a distinct fighting style. Tycho wields a mini-gun, while you swing with a rake and Gabe leads with his fists. There are many roleplaying elements to the game, with characters gaining experience after every fight as well as new abilities at various levels. Special attacks allow for an impressive amount of damage and over-the-top violent destruction of opponents. These attacks are mini-games unto themselves, requiring you to variously button-mash, time your keypresses, or pattern-match your way to victory. There's also a team-up option that has the characters combining forces to do even larger amounts of damage. There's humor throughout the game, even within the fighting portion of the game. NPC attacks include holding up a sign begging for money, and the disturbing FF robots are your opponents throughout the game.

The Penny Arcade style of comedy is most evident, though, in the dialogue-heavy sections of the game. The example given had the characters exploring a disgusting slum, variously opening doors into disturbing apartments. Much like the Sam and Max games, the fun comes in the excellent commentary by the PA characters, as well as their polished interchanges. It was obvious even from the short demo, though, that the player is going to feel much more a part of the experience in the Precipice series; being represented by an avatar onscreen changes the dynamic from a buddy flick to a party-based road show. Gloriously, your avatar even gets to have a few funny lines as well. They're not all reserved for the comic's creators. The final boss battle outlined a few more elements of combat, showing us again the team-ups and special attacks, but overall it did not go well for the heroes. They were slain by the Slum Lord's vicious 'Sack Attack', and left to the tender ministrations of the hordes of tiny FF robots scuttling around the apartment complex.

With the demo complete, they opened up the floor to questions:

• The PA gents have been involved in every step of the process, with Jerry providing almost every single line of dialogue and Mike assisting heavily with the art assets.
• The game will be available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux at launch. They're really hoping to get more platforms out there as well, such as Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store. They're going to be offering it themselves from their website, but are also considering other digital distribution methods like Steam.
• They're very much not interested in heavy DRM, and their attitude was that if people pirate their game heavily ... then that's the way of things. They're more interested in making sure their paying customers have a good experience.
• Rob Gilbert, the mind behind classics like the Monkey Island series of games, was in attendance at the panel and has been involved heavily in the title's development. He's been working with them on puzzle creation, dialogue tree tweaking, and other core aspects of gameplay. He viewed the highly collaborative nature of the game as not only a good working experience, but comparable to other successful projects he has worked on.
• Future episodes are already in the planning stages, with Episode Two already in development now that Episode One is near completion.
• They're aiming for something in between TellTale games' extremely rapid release schedule, and the epicly long pauses between chapters in Valve's 'episodic' series of Half-Life titles.

With the Hothead Q&A at an end, the first day of the convention came to a close. Gamers played long into the nigh in the PC, console, and tabletop rooms, though, until the event site closed at 3am. Today's events will be just as numerous, with more insights into upcoming games, the world of Penny Arcade, and the culture of gamers that has come together in this corner of the country.

Paul server guy writes "According to Wired Science the seven person F-XI LDM crew that has been stationed at the Mars Society's FMARS station has completed their unprecedented 100 day simulation. (Actually 101 days, because for 37 they lived on 'Mars time' adding 39 minutes to each day) According to the mission's remote science principal investigator Chris McKay, of NASA Ames. 'Their pioneering simulation of crew operations on Mars time is by far the best work on this topic ever done. It sets the standard for future Mars mission simulations.'"

ChainedFei writes "Wired News notes that the Spectrum auction is moving forward, with the FCC placing a minimum bid for the C-block spectrum being offered at $4.6 billion. That, coincidentally, was the amount that Google fronted as a minimum bid to endorse certain open standards for the spectrum being sold. This is essentially a move to shut out smaller possible competitors while also maximizing the money the auction will generate for the grade-A areas of the spectrum. In addition, any single bidder wishing to purchase the entirety of the spectrum must front a minimum of $10 billion. 'According to the FCC, nearly all of that C block aggregate reserve price will go toward a package of U.S. national licenses. This portion of the spectrum also happens to be the one with two open access conditions attached to its sale mandating that all devices be allowed to access the band and that all applications can be able to run across the network. If the reserve price isn't met, the auction will be rerun without these two conditions in place, according to the FCC.'"

The word from Bungie is that they consider the final chapter in the Halo story 99.9% complete. They're now in the home stretch, with time to polish. Says Luke Smith, "That last .1% percent is pretty important, however. Right now, some testing is being done in a controlled retail environment via our Halo 3 Epsilon. You've probably seen reports online or even folks on your friends' list playing it, so here's the scoop: The Epsilon is a closed, final phase testing for Halo 3. We won't be making the Epsilon available for public consumption, so while that's immensely disappointing for folks hoping that Friends and Family invites would be extended for the Epsilon, just know that each day you wait in agony is another day closer to September 25." Wired has a huge blowout feature on the title, with lots of screenshots, discussion of how the game was made, and more.

DragonHawk writes "According to Wired, John Stottlemire found a way to print duplicate coupons from Coupons.com by deleting some files and registry entires on his PC. Now he's being sued for a DMCA violation. He says, 'All I did was erase files or registry keys.' Says a lawyer: '[The DMCA] may cover this. I think it does give companies a lot of leverage and a lot of power.' So now the copyright cartels are saying that not only can we not copy things on our computers, but we can't delete things on our computers? Time to buy stock in Seagate."

Ulysees writes "According to Wired, Adobe may launch its own office-application suite, taking it into direct competition with Microsoft. Mike Downey, group manager for platform evangelism at Adobe, said: 'Though we have not yet announced any intentions to move into the office productivity-software market, considering that we have built this platform that makes it easy to build rich applications that run on both the desktop and the browser, I certainly wouldn't rule anything like that out.'" One example of what such Adobe Web-and-desktop apps could look like is provided by the Buzzword word processor, now in a closed beta. Adobe has invested in the startup developing this software.

Ulysees writes "According to Wired, Adobe may launch its own office-application suite, taking it into direct competition with Microsoft. Mike Downey, group manager for platform evangelism at Adobe, said: 'Though we have not yet announced any intentions to move into the office productivity-software market, considering that we have built this platform that makes it easy to build rich applications that run on both the desktop and the browser, I certainly wouldn't rule anything like that out.'" One example of what such Adobe Web-and-desktop apps could look like is provided by the Buzzword word processor, now in a closed beta. Adobe has invested in the startup developing this software.

Decius6i5 writes "Caltech grad student Virgil Griffith has launched a search tool that uncovers whitewashing and other self-interested editing of Wikipedia. Users can generate lists of every edit to Wikipedia which has been made from a particular IP address range. The tool has already uncovered a number of interesting edits, such as one from the corporate offices of Diebold which removed large sections of content critical of their electronic voting machines. A Wired story provides more detail and Threat Level is running a contest to see who can come up with the most interesting Wikipedia spin job."

Decius6i5 writes "Caltech grad student Virgil Griffith has launched a search tool that uncovers whitewashing and other self-interested editing of Wikipedia. Users can generate lists of every edit to Wikipedia which has been made from a particular IP address range. The tool has already uncovered a number of interesting edits, such as one from the corporate offices of Diebold which removed large sections of content critical of their electronic voting machines. A Wired story provides more detail and Threat Level is running a contest to see who can come up with the most interesting Wikipedia spin job."

Chris Kohler and Chris Baker of Wired had the deeply unfortunate task of watching Uwe Boll's latest affront to cinema and gaming: Postal. Kohler has a rundown on the exceedingly strange movie and its premiere. "Boll seems out to shock his audience into stunned disbelief rather than actually entertain them. Early in the movie, we get a long, leisurely shot of a fully nude Foley scratching his reproductive organs. I don't want to sound like I personally was offended or shocked by anything. In fact, the only time I laughed was during the movie's opening sequence, a comedy skit in the cockpit of one of the September 11 airplanes (they're fighting over the number of virgins they get in Paradise). It was legitimately well-paced and funny. But it was followed by 90 minutes of flat jokes." Baker has a much more in-depth look at Boll and the film's background ... if that's something you really want to hear about.

Chris Kohler and Chris Baker of Wired had the deeply unfortunate task of watching Uwe Boll's latest affront to cinema and gaming: Postal. Kohler has a rundown on the exceedingly strange movie and its premiere. "Boll seems out to shock his audience into stunned disbelief rather than actually entertain them. Early in the movie, we get a long, leisurely shot of a fully nude Foley scratching his reproductive organs. I don't want to sound like I personally was offended or shocked by anything. In fact, the only time I laughed was during the movie's opening sequence, a comedy skit in the cockpit of one of the September 11 airplanes (they're fighting over the number of virgins they get in Paradise). It was legitimately well-paced and funny. But it was followed by 90 minutes of flat jokes." Baker has a much more in-depth look at Boll and the film's background ... if that's something you really want to hear about.

epee1221 writes "Wired ran a story describing Lukas Grunwald's Defcon talk on an attack on airport passport readers. After extracting data from the (read-only) chip in a legitimate passport, he placed a version of the data with an altered passport photo (JPEG2000 is used in these chips) into a writable chip. The altered photo created a buffer overflow in two RFID readers he tested, causing both to crash. Grunwald suggests that vendors are typically using off-the-shelf JPEG2000 libraries, which would make the vulnerability common."

Apple just announced new iMacs. They are aluminum and come in 20" (two models) and 24". There's a new view called "Events" in iPhoto that should make it easier to deal with large photo libraries. Apple's .Mac service is enhanced with .Mac Web Gallery, which integrates with the new iTunes and also the iPhone. It's a Web 2.0 app now. And iMovie is being replaced by a completely new app of the same name. Steve Jobs claimed that with it you can put together a 5-minute movie in 30 minutes, and he demo'ed that from the stage. iWeb, iDVD, and GarageBand get new features too. And .Mac subscribers get 10 GB of storage. Here is Engadget's blow-by-blow coverage, and Wired's.

edmicman notes that "Wired has an article, "Slap in the Facebook: It's Time for Social Networks to Open Up", that calls for the greater programming community to create a truly "open" social network. Specifically, the problems with today's networks, says the author, is that their content is not available to everyone."

An anonymous reader writes "Wired is reporting that the Internet Radio Equality Act is failing fast in the House, with negotiations breaking down over fair pricing for internet radio broadcasters. 'A legislative setback could make it harder to dislodge the new fees, which took effect last month after a federal appeals court refused to postpone the payment deadline. With the threat of congressional backlash fading, SoundExchange could find little incentive to budge from its current position ... SoundExchange has already proposed changes that could relieve small and custom-streaming sites from charges they could not possibly afford to pay, at least in the short term. Many expect a small-webcaster deal to be done by early September, when Congress goes back into session. But the deal on the table hasn't changed since SoundExchange extended an offer in May to charge them 10 percent of gross revenue under $250,000, or 12 percent of gross revenues over $250,000, with a revenue cap at $1.25 million.'" All very cushy for SoundExchange. Wired also points out that this is the same organization illegally lobbying for terrestrial radio royalties through 'third party' shell groups.

An anonymous reader writes "Wired is reporting that the Internet Radio Equality Act is failing fast in the House, with negotiations breaking down over fair pricing for internet radio broadcasters. 'A legislative setback could make it harder to dislodge the new fees, which took effect last month after a federal appeals court refused to postpone the payment deadline. With the threat of congressional backlash fading, SoundExchange could find little incentive to budge from its current position ... SoundExchange has already proposed changes that could relieve small and custom-streaming sites from charges they could not possibly afford to pay, at least in the short term. Many expect a small-webcaster deal to be done by early September, when Congress goes back into session. But the deal on the table hasn't changed since SoundExchange extended an offer in May to charge them 10 percent of gross revenue under $250,000, or 12 percent of gross revenues over $250,000, with a revenue cap at $1.25 million.'" All very cushy for SoundExchange. Wired also points out that this is the same organization illegally lobbying for terrestrial radio royalties through 'third party' shell groups.

An anonymous reader writes "French chemist and cook Hervé This maintains his quest to find the scientific precision behind great tasting food. Chef This is just one of a growing number of cooks that approaches food from a scientific perspective; making recipes in a lab instead of in the kitchen. The difference is that This was one of the pioneers of the field. 'This and a colleague, the late Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti, conducted the experiments in their spare time. In 1988, the pair coined a term to describe their nascent field: molecular gastronomy. The name has since been applied to the kitchen wizardry of chefs like el Bulli's Ferran Adria and Alinea's Grant Achatz. But This is interested in basic culinary knowledge -- not flashy preparations -- and has continued to accumulate his precisions, which now number some 25,000.'"

An anonymous reader writes "Dateline NBC allegedly attempted to infiltrate the DefCon hackerfest with a producer using a hidden camera. The show hoped to tape hackers admitting to illegal activities, but DefCon got wind of the plot and displayed the would-be-mole's photo before every presentation. Dateline refused to deny the planned infiltration. 'All journalists covering DefCon sign an agreement upon registering for the conference that outlines the rules, but the DefCon organizers say the mole apparently registered as a regular attendee, thereby bypassing the legal agreement. Dateline NBC is best known for its controversial To Catch A Predator series, which uses hidden cameras to tape men who are allegedly seeking to have sex with minors they met online.'"

SoyChemist writes "Hollywood is not known for providing a wealth of positive female role models. Danica McKellar, the actress that played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years and Elsie Snuffin on The West Wing, has written a math book for teenage girls. 'Math Doesn't Suck' is done in the style of a teen magazine. It even includes a horoscope, cute doodles of shoes and jewelry, and testimonials from attractive young career women that use math at work. It focuses on fractions and pre-algebra and uses mnemonics like calling a reciprocal a 'refliprocal', because you just take the fraction and flip it upside down. Wired interviewed McKellar about the new book and her crusade to eliminate the achievement gap between boys and girls in math courses. McKellar graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA. While studying there, she co-authored a proof and presented it at a conference. After she and Mayim Bialik — star of Blossom and a PhD in neuroscience — appeared in a 20/20 episode about intellectual actresses, several literary agents came knocking on her door."

WerewolfOfVulcan writes "Wired reports that researcher Neal Krawetz revealed some very interesting things about the Al-Qaeda images broadcast in the mass media. Analysis shows that they're heavily manipulated, a discussion meant to illustrate a new technique that can spot forgery in digital media. 'Krawetz was ... able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners ... were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says.'"

If you were wondering how they could make the upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl even better than its predecessors, the official Dojo site has some great news for Nintendo fans. Via Game|Life comes the news that Brawl will feature a fully-fleshed out single-player sidescrolling campaign. Called 'The Subspace Emissary', it appears to explore the stories of the individual characters and their interactions with each other. "This time, though, we've managed to create a complete side-scrolling action game. It's storyline isn't overwrought--it's hastened along by a bunch of quick movies ... The Adventure mode also emphasizes character development. You'll see many famous characters persevering under the weight of their personal histories, shouldering their unique burdens... It's really something you won't see anywhere else." While obviously folks like Link and Mario will feature heavily, it's worth pointing out that this will be the first time in more than 15 years that Kid Icarus' Pit will get any sort of 'plot development' in a videogame.

An anonymous reader writes "Robots have been roaming Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any war zone — the 'bots are carrying guns. The SWORDS robots, armed with M249 machine guns, "haven't fired their weapons yet," an Army official says. "But that'll be happening soon." The machines have actually been ready for a while, but safety concerns kept them off the battlefield. Now, the robots have kill switches, so "now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," according to the Army. I feel safer already."

An anonymous reader writes "Robots have been roaming Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any war zone — the 'bots are carrying guns. The SWORDS robots, armed with M249 machine guns, "haven't fired their weapons yet," an Army official says. "But that'll be happening soon." The machines have actually been ready for a while, but safety concerns kept them off the battlefield. Now, the robots have kill switches, so "now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," according to the Army. I feel safer already."

This past weekend Game|Life went to Vegas, to attend the annual Classic Gaming Expo event. They came back with a bevy of tales about the show. The best include a short interview with Pitfall creator David Crane, a look at the classic games museum set up every year at the event, and (of course) glamour shots of dealer swag.

This past weekend Game|Life went to Vegas, to attend the annual Classic Gaming Expo event. They came back with a bevy of tales about the show. The best include a short interview with Pitfall creator David Crane, a look at the classic games museum set up every year at the event, and (of course) glamour shots of dealer swag.

This past weekend Game|Life went to Vegas, to attend the annual Classic Gaming Expo event. They came back with a bevy of tales about the show. The best include a short interview with Pitfall creator David Crane, a look at the classic games museum set up every year at the event, and (of course) glamour shots of dealer swag.

This past weekend Game|Life went to Vegas, to attend the annual Classic Gaming Expo event. They came back with a bevy of tales about the show. The best include a short interview with Pitfall creator David Crane, a look at the classic games museum set up every year at the event, and (of course) glamour shots of dealer swag.

A couple of weeks back we discussed the effort to require voting paper trails in US federal elections. Now WhiteBoxVoter writes: "Democrats and Republicans in the US House of Representatives agreed today on a compromise that will push through a bill banning paperless voting machines and requiring a voter-verified paper record for every vote in the country, after government sanctioned hackers showed how they could break into all three of the top voting systems used in California." The NYTimes reported on Thursday that even if it passes the House, voting-machine reform that would take effect before the 2008 elections may die in the Senate.

GameDaily reports that yesterday saw the debut of a trailer for the official Lost videogame. The game is slated for early next year, to coincide with the beginning of the fourth (and newly abbreviated) season of the show. Ubisoft Montreal is developing the game, and has apparently been working closely with the show's production staff. "Players will assume the role of a passenger on the ill-fated Oceanic flight 815 who survives the crash and is stranded on the uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. As the player begins to unravel mysteries of the island, new secrets about your character are revealed. Players will have to understand their character's past mistakes in order to survive and find their way home. The game will incorporate familiar locations and will feature main characters from the show. Gameplay will involve solving puzzles, outsmarting enemies, battling the smoke monster, and overcoming many other challenges to survive the island and ultimately come out alive." Game|Life has some fleeting impressions of the trailer. There are also some scant details of a videogame version of the show Heroes , currently in pre-production by Ubisoft as well.

katzmeow writes "Ryand Singel's Wired blog notes that Homeland security has developed an LED flashlight that uses 'powerful flashes of light to temporarily blind, disorient and incapacitate people.' The idea is to use it to incapacitate people — 'arrest them' — on airlines, borders, etc. without using traditional weapons. The company's president Bob Lieberman says the tool is perfect for confronting 'border jumpers.' 'You don't want to hurt or kill them, just take them into custody,' says Lieberman. 'With this, they don't need to know English to comply.' The 'light saber' can even be scaled up to bazooka size for subduing crowds."

An anonymous reader writes "Punchscan emerged victorious at the open source university voting systems competition, VoComp. For their efforts, they will receive the US$10,000 prize provided by ES&S (which has recently been named in a scandal in Florida). The second-place team put up a good fight: 'Per Ron Rivest, one of the contest's judges, the runner-up team, the Pret-a-Voter team from the University of Surrey in the UK, gave Punchscan a tough run for the first-place money until the Punchscan team dug through Pret-a-Voter's source code and found a significant security flaw in their random number generation. Oops.' It will be interesting to see if these systems ever make it into the mainstream. Kudos to ES&S for showing their forward thinking in this area, as the other voting machine vendors, such as Diebold, did not support the competition."

An anonymous reader writes "Punchscan emerged victorious at the open source university voting systems competition, VoComp. For their efforts, they will receive the US$10,000 prize provided by ES&S (which has recently been named in a scandal in Florida). The second-place team put up a good fight: 'Per Ron Rivest, one of the contest's judges, the runner-up team, the Pret-a-Voter team from the University of Surrey in the UK, gave Punchscan a tough run for the first-place money until the Punchscan team dug through Pret-a-Voter's source code and found a significant security flaw in their random number generation. Oops.' It will be interesting to see if these systems ever make it into the mainstream. Kudos to ES&S for showing their forward thinking in this area, as the other voting machine vendors, such as Diebold, did not support the competition."

Exstatica writes "It looks like TimeWarner is taking vigilante action on the botnet problem. They've hijacked DNS for a few IRC servers, the latest being irc.mzima.net and irc.nac.net — both part of EFNet. (irc.vel.net was hijacked earlier but has been restored.) Using ns1.sd.cox.net, the lookup returns an IP for what looks to be a script that forces the user into a channel and issues a set of commands to clean the drones. There have been different reports of other IRC networks being hijacked and other DNS servers involved. Is this the right way to handle the botnet problem? Is hijacking DNS legal?" Botnets are starting to move off of IRC for command and control, anyway.
Update: 07/24 00:01 GMT by KD : Updated and added more links; thanks to Drew Matthews at vel.net. 07/24 11:52 GMT by KD : Daniel Haskell wrote in to say that ircd.nac.net is seeing cox.net connections again, and that they are in discussion with the EFF over the matter.

Clive Thompson examines an artifact unique to the medium of videogames: the hatred of 'B' games. Unlike in television, movies, or even books, there doesn't seem to be room in gaming for appreciation of offerings so bad they're good. "Gamers never sit around and fondly recall games that were so ludicrous they circled back and arrived at greatness. There is no game analog to, say, Sid and Marty Kroft children's show, or Plan Nine From Outer Space. When a game is bad, it's just ... bad. I think this tells us a lot about the nature of play. B games don't exist because a game isn't something you watch; it's something you do. It's impossible to distance yourself from the badness. It's not like chuckling while watching an actor screw things up; it's like being forced to screw up yourself. Or think of it this way: A bad game is like being stuck in traffic. You've got goals, you've got places you're trying to get to, but the system won't let you. So you just sit there grinding your teeth. Lousy art can sometimes cause joy; lousy games can only cause stress."

Once again, it's not a strange dream: BioWare is making a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG for the Nintendo DS. Since the announcement back in June there have been precious few details. Luckily, Wired's Game|Life had the chance to speak with BioWare's CEO Ray Muzyka and President Greg Zeschuk about more than just Mass Effect. They discuss the genesis of the game, the depth of the title's story, and a bit on what gameplay will be like: "Game|Life: BioWare's previous efforts have been for the PC and the Xbox (and now the 360 with Mass Effect). What is the appeal of designing for the DS? Ray Muzyka: The handheld group at BioWare is certainly very excited about the innovation that can take place on the DS platform. We're really innovating what a BioWare RPG is with this title - we're looking forward to offering new and unique ways to enjoy a fast-paced, story-driven experience with tons of exploration, customization and progression. We're very excited by the opportunity to use all the cool features on the DS, and to make BioWare's first handheld RPG, one with a lot of action too, since it's based in the Sonic universe!"

With all of the journalists at last week's E3 event home and rested, the post-game analysis is definitely something to take note of. The elbow room at Barker hanger was appreciated, but many folks were frustrated that the hotel and hanger format was hell on shoe leather. Despite that, everyone seemed to appreciate the ability to actually hear and play the games, even if it meant that they couldn't make it around to every single title this year. The only person I saw saying that the event was an unqualified failure was Michael Pachter, the well-known games industry analyst. Calling the event 'a terrible disappointment', Pachter lamented the almost complete lack of coverage from the mainstream press; a result of the removal of the public and consumer-focused elements of the show. For the views of industry heavyweights, Kotaku put the question to Sony's Jack Tretton, Microsoft's Peter Moore, and Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. Their quote from Tretton summed it up nicely, I think: 'From a personal standpoint I think we need to figure out why we're doing E3.'

SoyChemist writes "In 2004, the FDA approved the cone snail venom ziconotide (Prialt) for the treatment of chronic pain. It is only used for severe cases because it must be injected directly into the spinal column. This month, researchers from the University of Utah have reported the discovery of a new snail venom with a completely different amino acid sequence. Because it very selectively attaches to and blocks nerve signals by binding to a particular type of acetylcholine receptor without causing any collateral damage, the newly discovered venom could also become a fantastic medical tool."

theodp writes "The kernel meets The Colonel in a just-published Microsoft patent application for an Advertising Services Architecture, which delivers targeted advertising as 'part of the OS.' Microsoft, who once teamed with law enforcement to protect consumers from unwanted advertising, goes on to boast that the invention can 'take steps to verify ad consumption,' be used to block ads from competitors, and even sneak a peek at 'user document files, user e-mail files, user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, [and] computer status messages' to deliver more tightly targeted ads."

Unequivocal writes "A new Wired magazine blog entry shows that Microsoft has patented a technique for preventing and reversing music piracy at the hardware level. 'Microsoft and Apple are thinking along the same lines when it comes to enabling users to copy music between their wireless devices. Certain cellphones already allow you to [transfer music] via Bluetooth file transfer, but Microsoft's patented idea would take the concept further, by allowing users to trade MP3s that may have come from file sharing networks to one another, expiring the song on the recipient's device after three plays, unless the user pays Microsoft a fee in order to continue to listen to the track, with a percentage going to the person who provided the song. As the abstract puts it, "even [the] resale of pirated media content [can] benefit... the copyright holder."'"

Although Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Super Mario Galaxy were both touched on at the Nintendo press conference ... it didn't really seem like enough. Thankfully, there are plenty of hands-on writeups to satisfy interested parties. Wired's Game|Life has almost nothing but praise for Metroid. Specifically, Chris Kohler singles out the FPS controls as proving the concept for him on the system. 1up is equally pleased with Mario. They cite its unconventional nature as initially offputting, but ultimately one of the things they enjoyed most about the game. "We simply love the way the game feels. Many gamers are of the opinion that Super Mario Sunshine strayed too far from the fundamentals of the series by focusing so heavily on the water cannon/jet pack, but Galaxy puts the emphasis right back on jumping and stomping foes. The controls are tight and the graphics are crisp, if not exactly a dead ringer for top-of-the-line Xbox 360 visuals. And tiny references to games past are everywhere, from the usual coins, to Goombas of unusual size, to "?" blocks that appear as crystalline squares that can be kicked around the levels as weapons or stomped on to yield rewards."

Joren writes "Just a few hours after our last discussion on this topic, Wired News is reporting that Internet radio broadcasters have won a temporary reprieve from the new rates. Apparently the details are still being worked out. 'A coalition of webcasters have worked out a deal with the recording industry that could temporarily stave off a portion of crippling net radio royalties set to take effect Sunday, according to people familiar with the negotiations ... For now, the parties involved in what's described as ongoing negotiations have agreed to waive at least temporarily the minimum charge of $6,000 per channel required under a scheme created by the Copyright Royalty Board, or CRB. The deal, brokered late Thursday, is not final and could change. One person involved in the talks described the situation as a reprieve, and said that internet radio won't be saved until a workable royalty rate is set.'"

dan the person writes "A Wired piece informs us that Intel and the OLPC project have put their bickering behind them. They have joined forces to ensure 'the maximum number of laptops will reach children'. '"What happened in the past has happened," said Will Swope of Intel. "But going forward, this allows the two organisations to go do a better job and have better impact for what we are both very eager to do which is help kids around the world." "Intel joins the OLPC board as a world leader in technology, helping reach the world's children. Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child. The new agreement means that Intel will sit alongside companies such as Google and Red Hat as partners in the OLPC scheme.'"