The official story: "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation"--Microsoft spokesman. Warner Bros. said "No comment."
What we heard: In a bit of a coup, Sci-Fi News scored the first pictures of the storyboards for the Halo movie, of which there are several on the site. It also claimed that the same source said that the project will be announced shortly in Variety, with full cast and crew details. According to the site, Ed Harris will play Captain Keyes, the Pillar of Autumn's doomed captain, and Samuel L. Jackson will play Sergeant Johnson, the hard-boiled UNSC space marine who assisted the Master Chief's Covenant-killing crusade. Sitting in the director's chair will be none other than Ridley Scott, director of sci-fi classics Alien and Blade Runner and arguably the most intense war film ever made, Black Hawk Down.
The mere thought of such talent bringing Halo to the screen is enough to give any geek heart palpitations. However, on the other side of the planet, Ain't It Cool News (AICN) was telling a much different tale. AICN received a tip from an informant claiming to work at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. According to said informant, two designers from WBIE-owned Monolith were in a meeting with Warner Bros. executives about the game adaptation of the 2006 sci-fi movie 2176, about "a futuristic retelling of the Revolutionary War." During the discussion, the subject of the Halo movie came up. According to the "WB informant," Warner Bros. approached Bungie at this year's E3 about acquiring the Halo film rights. Their response? "Unless you got the writer and director of the original Alien, everyone can go fish." And, according to AICN, Scott had already passed on the project, based on the script. However, since Halo 2 sold 2.5 million copies the first day, Warner Bros. has asked Scott to reconsider--and AICN says there's been no answer yet.
Although the quality of its writing lowered the bar for online film journalism to ant-height levels, AICN has been a steady source of Hollywood rumors for nearly a decade. Many are false. But many are spot-on, and the one posted today rings truer than its German counterpart.
Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus, although we'd love to be wrong on this one.
I can't speak for the validity of any of the sources, IGN, Ain't It Cool, Sci-Fi News or Gamespot but hopefully this will present the another side to the story.
Personally, I would like the story to be true however I must admit to being quite jaded after the fake February 9th story. I guess time will tell.
Your forgetting the mission in Vice City called "Cop Land" and I reckon that if there is validity between GTA and the article rather than it being a hoax then this is the mission in question.
IIRC The mission itself revolves around getting into a coffee shop in a mall dressed as a cop and setting off a bomb after one of your lackys botched the job of rigging the bomb in the first place. The mall is swarming with police and thus you need to get some uniforms to get into place. Once you actually get in and fix the timer you RUN LIKE HELL, because a) the bomb will take you out if you dont and b) every cop in Vice City is looking for you (a wanted rating of 5 stars).
I can see how this could relate to someone saying theres a bomb in the building and you need to get out.
-- Enditallnow
PS Anyone looking for info on the Copland mission should look here.
Ahh Ha! By that logic the next generation will be 4D and Nintend is going make the first leap with the Game-Hyper-Cube. A console that transends SPPPAACCE ANNDD TIIIMMMMEEE.
Its questionable whether this would help commercial applications. Not every company offering secure programs wants their source code floating about the internet (Insert Microsoft Joke Here).
I agree that the best way to ensure that an application is secure is for it to be reviewed by someone who knows their shit. Quite simply its the only way to be sure at this point in time. Perhaps
an authoritive body should be formed comprising of cryptographers that grants their seal of approval on it. Then again, doesn't the US government have to give its authorisation for cryptographic software to be exported? I recall that DES had to go through such motions, and if i'm not mistaken PGP can't be shipped outside of the US because its considered military grade cryptography? If im wrong please correct me, its been a while since I read over this topic and my memory is a bit hazy.
BTW, open source does not necessarily imply increased security. I'd rather have the word that a piece of software is secure from a professional like Bruce Schneier rather than an Open Source zealot who skimmed over a copy "Applied Cryptography" in their local Borders.
Tycho mentioned over at Penny-Arcade that he had a run in with the CEO of Infintum Labs who was quick to confirm what we all wanted to know, it seems he really does need to murder dogs to have an orgasm. Good to hear that he's got a good sense of humor.:)
-- Enditallnow
(F.A.O the Mod's: 'cause im getting that funny "Your a troll feeling" here is the link to the strip that started it all. )
I submitted an article on this subject but it didnt make the cut, ce la vie.
I think its worth pointing out that the mouse and keyboard combo looks like an interestingly designed piece of technology. Its shaped so that the entire thing can sit on your lap comfortably. The keyboard appears to be adjustible and the thing itself acts as the mouse mat. I would be slightly concerned that the mouse mat area is too close to the keyboard so perhaps that limits its use. IGN has a CGI mockup of it here and a real once can be seen in the BBC article linked too in the story.
Hardware aside I haven't actually seen any reports of software that runs on the thing. Did anyone who attend E3 get the chance to playtest one? As far as I can tell it was only the box on display and it may of only had a basic running demo.
The last thing I want to mention is about their distribution model. They claim they want to make software downloadable via broadband internet connections. Thats all fair and well but does anyone out there remember The Sega Channel? Long story short it was a cable channel that allowed you to download Genesis games directly onto your console. I don't believe it faired to well but given the popularity of XBox live and PS2 Online it shows that there is more of a likely uptake.
BTW, anyone interested in the Sega channel should have a look here and here.
I believe it is related to their archiving plans. As I stated in a seperate thread the BBC were/are considering using a p2p distribution model for providing their archive. Whether or not this is the case it is a fact they are interested in streaming the data and as the original poster stated the codec is optimised for this task.
As to the legalities and the like this is being tackled everywhere else in the discussion so I'm not really going to go into it except to say that I'm sure Aunty Beeb has good intentions and she's done her risk management to ensure that this is the right choice for her. Let's put it this way, the BBC gets its finances from the Licence Fee and as such their expenditures need to be in the public interest. I doubt they are doing this for just a laugh.
Did you ever consider that they intend to use this for their plans to put their archives online?
The poster stated that "It has been further developed to optimise it for internet streaming resolutions" which is one way for such a thing to be distributed.
Have a look here. The register states that "The BBC's new media director, Ashley Highfield, said that a P2P network will allow the BBC to handle the volume of traffic it expects when the Internet Media Player (IMP) goes live. The IMP will enable users to download or stream content to their PC, laptop or palmtop computer."
If this is the case then Aunty Beeb is well underway to providing the tools we will need for accessing their archives.
Kewl, do you think this means soldiers will be made open source soon? Just think of the advantages! (trying to avoid a dodgy joke about secure Colonel) But think of it this way, could you stand to see a military van with the Lucasarts logo on the side? I think not. Enditallnow
Slashdot Mirror
Jokes aside thanks for the Q&A guys.
-- Enditallnow
Have a look over at Gamespot for a different take on the story.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/halo2/news_61
Heres a copy and paste of the article.
I can't speak for the validity of any of the sources, IGN, Ain't It Cool, Sci-Fi News or Gamespot but hopefully this will present the another side to the story.
Personally, I would like the story to be true however I must admit to being quite jaded after the fake February 9th story. I guess time will tell.
-- Enditallnow
IIRC The mission itself revolves around getting into a coffee shop in a mall dressed as a cop and setting off a bomb after one of your lackys botched the job of rigging the bomb in the first place. The mall is swarming with police and thus you need to get some uniforms to get into place. Once you actually get in and fix the timer you RUN LIKE HELL, because a) the bomb will take you out if you dont and b) every cop in Vice City is looking for you (a wanted rating of 5 stars).
I can see how this could relate to someone saying theres a bomb in the building and you need to get out.
-- Enditallnow
PS Anyone looking for info on the Copland mission should look here.
-- Enditallnow
-- Enditallnow
I agree that the best way to ensure that an application is secure is for it to be reviewed by someone who knows their shit. Quite simply its the only way to be sure at this point in time. Perhaps an authoritive body should be formed comprising of cryptographers that grants their seal of approval on it. Then again, doesn't the US government have to give its authorisation for cryptographic software to be exported? I recall that DES had to go through such motions, and if i'm not mistaken PGP can't be shipped outside of the US because its considered military grade cryptography? If im wrong please correct me, its been a while since I read over this topic and my memory is a bit hazy.
BTW, open source does not necessarily imply increased security. I'd rather have the word that a piece of software is secure from a professional like Bruce Schneier rather than an Open Source zealot who skimmed over a copy "Applied Cryptography" in their local Borders.
-- Enditallnow
-- Enditallnow (F.A.O the Mod's: 'cause im getting that funny "Your a troll feeling" here is the link to the strip that started it all. )
I think its worth pointing out that the mouse and keyboard combo looks like an interestingly designed piece of technology. Its shaped so that the entire thing can sit on your lap comfortably. The keyboard appears to be adjustible and the thing itself acts as the mouse mat. I would be slightly concerned that the mouse mat area is too close to the keyboard so perhaps that limits its use. IGN has a CGI mockup of it here and a real once can be seen in the BBC article linked too in the story.
Hardware aside I haven't actually seen any reports of software that runs on the thing. Did anyone who attend E3 get the chance to playtest one? As far as I can tell it was only the box on display and it may of only had a basic running demo.
The last thing I want to mention is about their distribution model. They claim they want to make software downloadable via broadband internet connections. Thats all fair and well but does anyone out there remember The Sega Channel? Long story short it was a cable channel that allowed you to download Genesis games directly onto your console. I don't believe it faired to well but given the popularity of XBox live and PS2 Online it shows that there is more of a likely uptake.
BTW, anyone interested in the Sega channel should have a look here and here.
-- Enditallnow
As to the legalities and the like this is being tackled everywhere else in the discussion so I'm not really going to go into it except to say that I'm sure Aunty Beeb has good intentions and she's done her risk management to ensure that this is the right choice for her. Let's put it this way, the BBC gets its finances from the Licence Fee and as such their expenditures need to be in the public interest. I doubt they are doing this for just a laugh.
-- Enditallnow
Did you ever consider that they intend to use this for their plans to put their archives online?
The poster stated that "It has been further developed to optimise it for internet streaming resolutions" which is one way for such a thing to be distributed. Have a look here. The register states that "The BBC's new media director, Ashley Highfield, said that a P2P network will allow the BBC to handle the volume of traffic it expects when the Internet Media Player (IMP) goes live. The IMP will enable users to download or stream content to their PC, laptop or palmtop computer."
If this is the case then Aunty Beeb is well underway to providing the tools we will need for accessing their archives.
-- Enditallnow
http://www.theforce.net/prequels/cutting_room9.sht ml
By the looks of things the scene was filmed (theres pictures there to prove it)
--enditallnowEnditallnow
Enditallnow,
if everything seems under control your just not moving fast enough.
Enditallnow
Da Cr33p
But I'd just like 2 know how many ppl out there would actually have the time to develop there own version of linux.
Enditallnow
Kewl, do you think this means soldiers will be made open source soon? Just think of the advantages! (trying to avoid a dodgy joke about secure Colonel) But think of it this way, could you stand to see a military van with the Lucasarts logo on the side? I think not. Enditallnow